Nearly 130,000 parents using the Child Maintenance Service's Collect & Pay function are now paying more than 90% of the maintenance due, a record high and up around 27% in a year, the Department for Work and Pensions said on 23 October 2026. The number of parents paying nothing has fallen by around 19% since March 2025, while the service supports almost 1.6 million parents across Great Britain.

The department said compliance improvements come alongside faster customer service, with 85% of calls answered compared with 59% in summer 2024, and average waiting times down from more than 28 minutes to just over 11 minutes. Figures were correct as of March 2026, and 243,000 paying parents were due to pay via Collect & Pay at that point.

The government says child maintenance arrangements help keep around 120,000 children out of relative poverty, and that its wider measures, including lifting the two-child benefit limit, are intended to lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament. Minister for Lords Baroness Maeve Sherlock said the priority is ensuring children get the support they are entitled to from both parents.