As an employer you can be required by the state to help them collect money from an individual where, for example, they have been overpaid benefits. This is different from an attachment of earnings order that the Court may issue.

You may receive a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions Debt Management team asking you to make a deduction from the employee’s wages in the next payroll run. Failure to make this deduction and to send the payment to the DWP can result in a fine of £1000. You also have a legal duty to tell the DWP if the person they have written to you about is no longer an employee and when they left.

The deduction can come from any net wages, salary, commission, overtime pay, statutory sick pay or payment in lieu of notice you are making to the employee, subject to a protected earnings level which means that the employee’s wages cannot fall below 60%.

You are able to deduct the princely sum of £1 as your admin fee for processing this, provided you itemise this on the payslip.

More information can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/direct-earnings-attachments-an-employers-guide