If one of your creditors has a County Court Judgment (CCJ) against you in the county court which you do not pay then they can try to enforce the judgment against you. One of the ways this can be done is the creditor applies to the county court for an Attachment of Earnings Order to be made.

This order tells your employer to make deductions straight from your earnings in order to pay the debt. Your employer then sends the money to the court. Your employer can also deduct £1.00 every time they take money out of your wages towards the cost of administering the Attachment of Earnings Order.

The court can order deductions to be made directly from your earnings if:

• You are behind with payments on your county court judgment (CCJ).
• You are an employee (not self-employed or on benefits).
• You owe more than £50 on the judgment.

If your creditor makes an application for an Attachment of Earnings Order, the court will send you a form to fill in called an N56 . This asks you to fill in these details:

• name, address and number of dependants;
• your employer's details;
• your income and outgoings;
• any other credit debts and court orders that you have.

FILLING IN THE COURT FORMS

There is a section asking you to make an offer of payment that you can afford. You should fill this in and make sure you have included details of all your other debts and how much you are paying to other creditors. You can also ask the court to agree to make a Suspended Attachment of Earnings Order by ticking the box and filling in the reasons why you want a suspended order. This could be that you may lose your job or promotion prospects if your employer finds out you are in debt. You can use the Online Income & Expenditure Form to help you determine what your offer of repayment should be.

What Happens If I don't Return The Form? 

You must send the form back to the court within 8 days. It is an offence not to send back the form or to give false information. If you don't send back the N56 form the county court bailiffs will serve you with an order to fill it in. If you still don't contact the court then you will be sent a notice to go to a court hearing to explain why you have not given the court the information requested. You must go to this hearing. If you don't attend then the court can issue a warrant for you to be arrested and brought to court or even send you straight to prison.

You can be sent to prison for up to 14 days or fined simply for not following the court's instructions to fill in the form and go to the hearing.

Also, f the creditor knows your employer's address the court can go directly to the employer and ask them to provide details of your earnings if you do not return the N56 form to the court.