While politicians debate delaying the youth minimum wage increase to save money, the family court system is burning through millions on a hidden crisis nobody's talking about.

In 2023, judges issued 12,774 prohibited steps orders under Section 8 of the Children Act. These are court orders that stop one parent from doing something with their child, like taking them abroad or moving house. The year before? Just five cases. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics -- Family_Court_Tables__Jul-Sep_2024_ -- Table_3)

That's not a typo. We've gone from five cases to nearly 13,000 in a single year.

Each prohibited steps application costs the court system roughly £2,500 in judge time, court staff, and administration. Do the maths: that's potentially £32 million in court costs alone for 2023. And that's before you add the legal aid bills for parents who can't afford their own lawyers.

What's driving this explosion? The most likely explanation is a change in how the Ministry of Justice records these cases. But here's what should worry taxpayers: even if this spike reflects better data collection rather than a genuine surge, it reveals the true scale of family breakdown landing on court doorsteps.

These aren't abstract statistics. Each prohibited steps order represents a family so fractured that one parent had to ask a judge to stop the other from making basic decisions about their child's life. Someone couldn't trust their ex-partner not to disappear abroad with the kids, or move them hundreds of miles away without warning.

The court system is already creaking under pressure. Family court waiting times have stretched beyond 26 weeks in some areas. Adding 12,774 contested hearings to that backlog means more delays for everyone, more stress for children caught in the middle, and more bills for taxpayers.

While Reform UK promises to keep the Office for Budget Responsibility to watch government spending, perhaps they should look at what's happening in family courts first. This is where public money disappears into Britain's most personal dramas, one broken relationship at a time.

The government talks about prevention being better than cure when it comes to NHS spending. The same logic applies here: every pound spent on relationship support services and mediation could save thousands in court costs later. But instead, we're paying judges £150 an hour to referee disputes that might never have reached court with earlier intervention.

Next time someone asks where your taxes go, remember this: Britain spent millions in 2023 on court orders to stop parents from moving house or taking their children on holiday. That's the hidden cost of family breakdown, paid for by you.