DWP explains 'enforcement' changes with more court orders and bank account deductions

DWP explains 'enforcement' changes with more court orders and bank account deductions Top DWP officials told MPs how they are also stepping up its data checks Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Add us as preferred source Comments By Nicholas Dawson , Finance Reporter 02:18, Sun, Nov 1, 2026 DWP minister Baroness Sherlock speaking to the Work and Pensions Committee (Image: UK Parliament) Senior Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials have spoken about how they are stepping up their enforcement powers including measures to directly take an amount from a person's bank account.

A DWP minister told MPs how they use an "escalated enforcement" process to target people who are not compliant. Representatives from the department recently spoke to the Work and Pensions Committee about the work of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). The purpose of the CMS is to manage one parent sending payments over for the upkeep of their child, where they do not live with the child. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT Faster intervention The committee asked the top officials about its work to "speed up and use enforcement powers more effectively", where a parent is not paying their dues.

DWP minister Baroness Sherlock told the committee: "The ideal with enforcement is you never want to get there. So really what you want is early visibility when a payment is not there, jumping (in) quickly, getting it back on track before it ever escalates to the stage where you have to engage with enforcement." Parents can choose to either pay through Direct Pay, where the funds are sent to the receiving payment, or thorough Collect and Pay, where the CMS will collect the cash and send it over.

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You can unsubscribe at any time. More Info . Baroness Sherlock there has been a change here: "If somebody is not paying under Direct Pay, we've made it much quicker to be able to transfer that into Collect and Pay." Once a person has been moved over to the collection system, the DWP has several options to take the funds. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT Taking funds from bank accounts The minister explained: "If someone doesn't pay, we can move in quickly and for example, if necessary, take the money out of somebody's wages, or look at other ways to get it from them.

Only if that fails do you then move into the escalated enforcement." Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT Ensure our latest DWP headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings. Deputy director of enforcement at the CMS, Lucy Appleton, explained more about how this works. She said that for the "vast majority" of cases, there is no need to use the enforcement powers to arrange payments.

Labour scraps Rachel Reeves DWP state pension tax exemption rules in bombshell U-turn Brits with high blood pressure could claim £843.27 per month in DWP payments | Personal Finance | Finance | Express.co.uk She said: "We have powers, as the minister referred to there, to be able to deduct from earnings, and also to be able to take money directly out of bank accounts. Then we move into our more legal our legal power route, by issuing a liability order, which obviously we need to go to the courts for."

Court action A liability order is a formal legal order issued by a magistrates' court in England and Wales giving an authority special powers to to recover a debt, such as a council tax arrears or a child support payment. Ms Appleton said the department is "really making improvements" in getting to this stage more quickly, in their efforts to try and get a parent to pay up. She explained: "We have negotiated with HMCTS [HM Courts and Tribunal Service] additional court slots, and we are already starting to see the real benefit from that in actually being able to speed up the process of getting those liability orders into court.

"So, that's one of the initial things that that we have done already, and hopefully, our customers will will start to see the benefits of that." The DWP is also improving its data checks to identify where there may be a payment issue. Ms Appleton said: "There are other things that we are doing around the use of predictive analytics, for example. Our early enforcement team, our early intervention team, was launched last year in 2025. "We use predictive analytics there to look for patterns in customer behaviors that imply that somebody might be about to go non-compliant.

Then our team can reach out to those customers and say, 'What can we do to help you?' So far, it's really quite successful." DWP response The DWP was asked for a comment about the enforcement powers it uses. A spokesperson said: "Our top priority is ensuring children receive the support they are entitled to. "In the vast majority of the 820,000 cases we handle, enforcement action is not necessary, and we will only take it where evidence shows child maintenance has not been paid and arrears are owed.Where a paying parent disagrees with a decision, they can challenge it."

The department has had powers since 2009 to recover funds in various ways, including taking deductions directly from earnings, benefits, bank accounts. A paying parent can dispute a decision through the m andatory reconsideration process and go on to appeal the decision if they are still unhappy with the out come. DWP Child benefit Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Add us as preferred source Comments