<p>The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers.</p><p> </p><p>An application to the courts for a liability order once granted brings a range of legal actions we can take to collect the child maintenance:</p><p> </p><ul><li>asking bailiffs to negotiate a payment, or to seize and sell a paying parent’s belongings</li><li>registering a paying parent’s debt on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, making it difficult for them to get a mortgage, loan or credit card. This option is not regularly taken by the Child Maintenance Service and applied only to those in financial service positions.</li><li>using an ‘order for sale’ to sell a paying parent’s property or assets, and taking the proceeds from the sale</li><li>sending the paying parent to prison</li><li>stopping the paying parent getting or keeping a driving licence</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p>The DWP publishes quarterly statistics on enforcement actions for the Child Maintenance Service Statistics (experimental).</p><p> </p><p>The latest statistics are available up to September 2022 and are available <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-maintenance-service-statistics-data-to-september-2022-experimental" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The available statistics for enforcement actions used by the CMS from April 2015 to September 2022 can be found in ‘Table 7.1: Enforcement Actions’ of the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1123498/national-tables-child-maintenance-service-to-september-2022.ods" target="_blank">National tables</a>.</p>