Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog of Child Maintenance Service enforcement cases and increase compliance.

The Department does not have a backlog of Child Maintenance Service (CMS) enforcement cases. All cases requiring enforcement action are being actively progressed in accordance with established operational procedures.

The Department continues to strengthen enforcement activity to ensure that parents meet their financial responsibilities. In recent years, it has expanded the range of enforcement powers available to the CMS, enhanced case‑handling processes, and invested in additional capability to take timely action when payments are missed.

As a result of this sustained focus, published statistics show a significant increase in compliance, with the proportion of paying parents who paid some maintenance rising from 64% in the quarter ending September 2022 to 74% in the quarter ending September 2025. The Department remains committed to driving further improvement.

System improvements have been introduced to allow earlier identification of cases at risk of non‑payment, enabling quicker action to re‑establish compliance when payments fail or become irregular.

As part of wider reforms, the Government proposes moving to a single service by removing Direct Pay and expanding the Collect and Pay service. This will create a fully monitored system in which all payments are visible in real time, making non‑compliance easier to detect and allowing faster enforcement intervention.

To strengthen enforcement further, work is underway to introduce administrative liability orders (ALOs), which would remove the need to apply to the courts and reduce the current process to around six weeks in most cases. The Department is working with HMCTS and the Scottish Government to introduce regulations to Parliament as soon as possible.

The CMS remains focused on ensuring that maintenance is paid promptly and in full.