There are several reasons why enforcing payments can take a long time. For example, the Department can be slow to start civil enforcement activity where other attempts at collection have failed. As at September 2021, only around one-third (34%) of paying parents on Collect & Pay with ongoing maintenance arrangements who had not contributed for more than six months were being dealt with by the Department’s Enforcement Team.51 Many of the Department’s enforcement processes are set out in legislation and require action by external bodies. The Department told us that it wanted to further speed up its enforcement processes, but that “some of the points in the process are in other people’s hands.” For example, it explained that it needed to secure a liability order to move forward with civil enforcement and that in order to do this, it needed to secure court time. The Department confirmed that it was working towards ironing out these systemic delays.52 However, the NAO found that enforcement of arrears does not ensure ongoing compliance, and that even where CMS enforces the collection of unpaid maintenance the Paying Parents miss further payments in the meantime and end up owing £400 more than before the enforcement action started.53