An Employer's Guide to Direct Earnings Attachments (DEA) for the Collection of Housing Benefit Overpayments

What counts as 'earnings' for Direct Earnings Attachments (DEAs):

• wages
• salary
• fees
• bonuses
• commission
• overtime pay
• most other payments on top of wages
• Occupational Pensions, if paid with wages or salary
• compensation payments
• Statutory Sick Pay

What does not count as 'earnings' for Direct Earnings Attachments (DEAs):

• Statutory Maternity Pay
• Statutory Adoption Pay
• Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay
• Additional Statutory Paternity Pay
• any pension, benefit, allowance or credit paid by DWP, a local authority or HMRC
• a guaranteed minimum pension under the Pensions Scheme Act 1993 (b)
• amounts paid by a public department of the Government of Northern Ireland or anywhere outside the United Kingdom
• sums paid to reimburse expenses wholly and necessarily incurred in the course of the employment
• pay or allowances as a member of His Majesty's forces, other than pay or allowances payable to them by you as a special member of a reverse force
• lump sum redundancy payments and pay in lieu of notice

If the only earnings your employee receives are those in the 'does not' list, you cannot calculate a DEA deduction. Similarly, if any of these are paid as part of the earnings, they are not to be included as part of the employee's net earnings.

You must continue to calculate a DEA deduction every pay day until either:

• we advise you to stop
• the employee leaves your employment
• the amount to recover is no longer outstanding
• we ask you to apply a fixed rate deduction