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Court orders

Summary

A pay code can be marked as Attachment Order. During the pay cycle, payroll processes court-order deductions against attachable pay. If there is not enough disposable income, payroll can take a smaller amount and carry the remaining balance to the next cycle.

On Salaries, the deduction appears under other deductions using the pay code name. There is no separate Court Order column.

In this article

  • Before you begin
  • Mark the pay code as Attachment Order
  • Adding the deduction to the person
  • How payroll processes the order
  • See the deduction on the pay cycle
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Before you begin

You must have an active Payroll add-on to access and use Payroll features.

You need payroll admin access to set pay codes. To process the pay cycle, you also need:

  • Company Money access
  • View Pay Schedules
  • Start Payrun

The person must already have an active court-order deduction on a default deduction pay code that payroll treats as a court order.

PAYE, National Insurance, and pension must be calculated for the cycle because court-order processing uses these figures.

This article explains how Plumm processes court orders during a pay cycle. It is not legal advice on attachment of earnings.

Mark the pay code as Attachment Order

From the main menu, select Admin.

Select Payroll.

Open the relevant location, then select Pay Code.

When you add or edit a pay code, the available checkboxes include:

  • National Insurance
  • Tax
  • Pension
  • Attachment Order

Tick Attachment Order if income or deductions on this code should be treated as part of an attachment order.

The Attachment Order column in the pay code grid shows whether this setting is enabled.

Select Confirm.

System deduction codes that are court orders are also processed, including when you are using default UK pay codes rather than custom codes.

Adding the deduction to the person

Open the pay cycle from Company Money → Pay Schedules, then select Start Pay run or Continue Pay run.

Open Salaries, then Deductions.

Open the employee.

The deductions sidebar shows:

  • PAYE
  • Pension or Employee Pension
  • National Insurance
  • Student Loan
  • Postgraduate Loan

Other deduction lines are also shown, including court-order pay codes by name.

You can add a deduction from the pay code list if the required code exists. Select Save when you have finished.

If there are no pay codes available, Plumm shows Please add a Paycode.

The deduction must be Active for the current cycle.

How payroll processes the order

When the cycle calculates employee deductions, payroll processes court orders for people who have an active court-order deduction in the current cycle.

Attachable income used in the calculation includes current cycle income plus default additions coded as:

  • Overtime (OT)
  • BONUS
  • COMMISSION
  • SSP

Payroll deducts PAYE, National Insurance, and pension from the attachable pay to calculate the net pay available for the order.

If net pay is below the protected earnings amount used by payroll (£1,100.00), or the remaining amount after protected earnings cannot cover the full court order, the order cannot be taken in full.

Priority court orders are processed first.

If only part of the order can be taken:

  • The deduction for the current cycle is reduced to the amount that can be taken.
  • The remaining balance can be carried forward to the next pay cycle.
  • Plumm stores a warning. The message starts Insufficient disposable income to cover the full court order deduction, followed by the order code and the carry-forward balance created for the next pay cycle.

If there is no disposable income available, the court-order amount for the current cycle is set to 0 and the deduction is not taken.

See the deduction on the pay cycle

There is no column labelled Court Order on Deductions.

Open the person on Deductions. The court-order amount appears as another deduction line using the pay code name, for example Type-Name, together with the Amount.

The amount is included in Total Deductions.

On the Deductions grid, the amount appears under Taxable Deductions or Non-Taxable Deductions, depending on the pay code.

If a carry-forward warning was created, open Updates. The stored type is COURT ORDER VALIDATION.

This type is not included in the friendly Type list used for Statutory Pay Validation, so it may appear as COURT ORDER VALIDATION rather than a rewritten label.

Select Recalculate if deductions changed after the cycle was opened.

After Process Pay Run, the amounts are locked on the Completed cycle. If you need to make corrections and process the cycle again, undo the pay run if you have Undo Payrun permission.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • Why did the court-order amount change after Recalculate?
    Payroll reduced the amount because disposable income after PAYE, National Insurance, pension, and protected earnings could not cover the full order. Check Updates for a carry-forward message.
  • Where is the Court Order column on Salaries?
    There is no separate Court Order column. Open the person on Deductions and review the other deduction lines. The pay code name is used as the label.
  • Does overtime affect court orders?
    Yes. Overtime (OT) is included in attachable income, together with BONUS, COMMISSION, and SSP.
  • What is protected earnings in Plumm?
    Payroll uses £1,100.00 as the protected earnings amount when determining whether the order can be taken in full. Confirm the current legal figure with your adviser. Plumm is applying the stored amount and is not providing legal advice.
  • Can I ignore a court-order warning?
    Do not ignore the warning unless you have checked the deduction, the carry-forward balance for the next cycle, and the person’s net pay.