Overview
To add a Court Order to an employee's record, you need to go to the Employee Details and then select Pay Run Inclusions.
On the Pay Run Inclusions page select the Add button on the deductions row.
From the drop down menu select Post-Tax Deduction.
Then click Apply Court Order.
A box will then pop up requesting you to apply the court order. Here you need to select the appropriate court order from the drop down menu and the system will pre-populate the most common settings for that type of court order.
The court order type options are:
- England/Wales Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) - Priority
- Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO) - Pre March 2003
- Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO) - Post March 2003
- Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (CTAEO)
- England/Wales Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) - Fines
- England/Wales Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) - Non Priority
- Scotland Earnings Arrestment (EA)
- Department of Work and Pensions Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) - Higher Rate
- Department of Work and Pensions Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) - Standard Rate
- England/Wales – Council Tax AEO Pre 2007 (CTPRE07)
- Wales Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (CTAEO) – April 2002
Once you have made your selection you will need to enter the appropriate fields required for your court order. So for example an AEO has a fixed amount and a preserved earnings amount which needs to be completed, then press save and you will be taken back to the deductions page.
Here you have the option to change the amount (per pay run) to:
- Fixed - this is a fixed amount taken every pay run.
- Percentage of Gross - this is a percentage of the gross earnings.
- Percentage of Net - this is a percentage of the net earnings.
- Varied based on earnings amount - when this option is selected you will need to then select the type of court order and weekly/monthly. The system will present to you the most common way of that court order being deducted depending on what you have selected. You could get either the pop up box or a varied earnings.
If the employee has multiple court orders, the system needs to know which one to apply first. The system defaults to 0 but it is up to the user to decide the priority.
If the employee has a student loan:
Depending on the type of court order they have will depend on how the student loan is deducted. If they had a CTAEO then this would stop student loans being deducted, others depend on if they are priority or non-priority or exactly what type of order they are.
The system will determine this and you have the option to amend this should you need to.
If there are no student loans then the system will just ignore it.
You need to select if the payment is to be paid manually or to a bank account.
If you pay it to a bank account, you can then enter the details for where it will be paid.
Preserved earnings are a fixed pound amount that is used to indicate the minimum amount an employee must be paid before a deduction can be made. You have several options as to how the preserved earnings are applied, you need to select from the drop down menu either: never; once a minimum net earnings limit has been reached or once a percentage of net earnings limit has been reached.
You can also set the system to either not pay the deduction, or pay the deduction up to the preservation limit, and set up how any carried forward amounts are treated for both preserved earnings and court orders if required.
If you want any notes to appear on the pay run for the inclusion they should be entered in the notes section.
You need to enter when the inclusion should start, options are:
- today
- on the following date
When it will expire:
- never
- on the following date
- after the following amount has been reached
If the court order was originally set up on a previous payroll and has had payments already made you can enter the figure paid so far in the ‘Amount paid so far’ box.
If you have selected for the pay run inclusion to expire ‘After the following amount has been reached’ a box will appear showing the initial court order balance.
This court order will now be set up and will be applied in the pay run that you have set the inclusion to start in.
If you wish to take a £1 admin fee you need to set up a deduction for this and follow the court order guidance as to when to apply it. Click here for more information on how to set up a deduction.'
Court Order Deductions Report
In the reports screen under the Payroll category is a Court order deductions report.
The report shows all court order details for each employee.
The report can also be added within the report packs.