A divorced father in Manchester receives a court enforcement order. The paperwork alone costs taxpayers £5,109. Last year, the same enforcement action cost just £1.

While ministers debate delaying youth minimum wage rises over cost concerns, the family court system has quietly burned through taxpayer money at a rate that makes those wage discussions look like pocket change.

The latest Ministry of Justice data reveals enforcement orders including amendments and breaches cost £5,109 per case in 2023. The previous year? £1 per case. That's a 510,800% increase in a single year. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics -- Family_Court_Tables__Jul-Sep_2024_ -- Table_3)

To put this in perspective: the government's proposed youth minimum wage increase would cost employers roughly £2 per hour extra per young worker. The family court enforcement system just increased its per-case costs by over five thousand pounds.

The numbers suggest either a catastrophic accounting error or a fundamental shift in how family court enforcement operates. Either way, someone needs to explain where this money went.

The timing couldn't be more awkward. As Rachel Reeves scrutinises every departmental penny and businesses warn about wage rise impacts, the Ministry of Justice appears to have overseen one of the most dramatic cost explosions in recent government history.

Family courts handle some of Britain's most sensitive disputes. Parents fighting over child access, domestic violence cases, financial settlements after divorce. These aren't optional services you can outsource or streamline away.

But when enforcement costs jump from £1 to £5,109 overnight, questions multiply faster than the bills. Is this new technology? Legal fees? Administrative chaos? The data doesn't say, but taxpayers are picking up the tab.

The enforcement category covers amendments and breaches of existing court orders. Think: when a parent violates custody arrangements or fails to pay maintenance. These cases require court time, legal paperwork, sometimes bailiffs or other enforcement officers.

Still, even accounting for inflation and increased complexity, a 510,800% rise defies explanation. The youth minimum wage debate centres on whether businesses can absorb a few pounds extra per hour. The family courts just absorbed several thousand pounds extra per enforcement action.

While politicians argue over wage rises that might cost the economy millions, they've stayed silent about a court system that appears to have blown through taxpayer funds at historically unprecedented rates. Someone owes the public an explanation about where exactly these five thousand pounds per case actually went.