Are you sure about that? I thought they could take any amount of money, even if it was less than the amount due. That would be great though! There is something I don't understand, how could they arrest your account if you had an arrangement to repay already in place? Normally, they are not allowed to take benefits money, but they can take from your wages. Have you contacted your CAB for advice or the debt collector to see with them? Let me know if you find a way to sort your problem. I have received a letter from Scott & co today, dated 9th/12/2011 for one of the debt on this account, as there were 3 different accounts that were put together a while ago. They put a different account number, the balance due is £304.65 ( which is included in the total of £1328.75) saying: "We have recently executed a funds arrestment in respect of the debts detailed above. This means that you may not have access to funds held in your bank account or due to you by a third party. It is essential that you contact us immediatly on the above number to prevent further action proceeding against you to obtain release of any arrestment funds to our client." Are they allowed to split account liker that?? The strange thing is that the letter I received on the 23/11 the prop. dets is our previous address( part of teh debt is from this place) but on the charge for payment, they only used our current address, with the same account number. Is it me or is Scott & Co just rubbish at following their case? I emailed them thursday 8th, I am still awaiting a reply from them, I made a £5 payment on their website and also offered a DD through their site, and no reply, but they send a letter asking to contact them...dated from the day after I emailed. The Sheriff Clerk should have the letter anytime soon now, but I really would like to know how scott&co manage their account, as it just sound like a lot of rubbish. By the way, checked my partner's account today, tax credit has been paid and we can still use the account.

Hi I had a thought over night, and remembered that the last time my partner put some money on his account was beginning of october, so since then, only benefits were paid onto the account, so they did take benefits money. Our rent was taken twice since he put the money, and the money he put wouldn't cover fully the rent. I am just trying to find a solution, and would be very happy to tell scott & co they have done something wrong!

What do you mean? Since I sent a Time to pay for the last Charge of payment, that should be enough for an arrangement to pay the debt, wouldn'it? Sorry if I am being thick here

There was one in august, I then phoned them to arrange for a direct debit, but from september we had some financial difficulties, meaning the direct debit was just bounced back from not enough funding on the account. I tried to contact them few times since beginning of november without luck, and we received a letter on the 23/11/2011 saying they have been instructed to commence enforcement. Finishing witha " please contact us now for assistance", with the same 0131 number on it. The thing that doesn't seem right to me is that there is no delay on that letter. I did put a copy of that letter with the Time to pay I sent today, first class recorded.

Thanks for your reply. Noone got back to me yet from the email I sent yesterday, so will post th Time to pay and enclosed a copy of the email i sent. I will see with my partner for a copy of his bank account, as I assume it has to be a recent one. Do you know how long they take to release the money?

Hi all I am new here, I had a look at the forum to see if I could find an answer to my problem, but not everything was covered. I have some debt for the 2009 and 2010. I had an arrangement with Scott & Co for a payment by direct debit, but since august, I haven't been able to make a payment. We received a letter dated 23 of november saying that our arrangement was cancelled and enforcement action will be taken, but no delay to do anything is stated on that letter. On the 6th of december, someone came to our houseand a charge for payment was given to us. I have been trying to phone them few times without luck, so yesterday I made a payment of £5 online in the hope to allow us more time in case it took longer to get hold of them. Today, I received a letter from my partner's bank saying that an arrestment has been taken on his account on the 2nd of december. We are both self employed, the only money we have is my partner's salary from his business and mostly live with benefits, we also have 2 kids under 5. They couldn't take anything on my account as I have an overdraft and the only money that goes in it iare child benefit and tax credit, and almost half of the money that goes onto my partneer's account are working tax credit and housing benefit. I am the one dealing with that,as we split the expense over our accounts, so he is not really aware of the arrears we have.... They took £255 on his account, and the debt is £1328 ( but on the charge for payment £1186which I assume is due to the arrestment.) So today, I finally emailed them , after reading someone here who was succesfull in doing that, offering a monthly payment of £140 from the 21st of december, which is the most we can afford if we still want to pay a decent amount for this year council tax. I also asked to have a reply within 7 days and to release the amount taken from the account. After reading a bit, I think they won't let us have that money back. So, few questions here: Should I fill a Time To Pay in the meantime ( I have had a look, but don't understand it all) I have seen that they can't arrest money on an account with benefits, does housing benefits counts? Or will they just take the money from the money he earn, despite benefits on his account? Do we have any chance to have the arrestment money back? Does the arrestment be on all the money that goes into this acount or is it just a one time order so any money that goes after is still available for us? Thanks a lot for your help. I am hoping to sort this out ASAP, so I won't have to stress my partner with that as he is already quite stressed, between work and we are having one of our kid with a possibility to have "special needs"