This is genuinely about a friend.
A friend has recently discovered that there is an open CMS claim against him and that arrears have built up for child maintenance relating to his biological child. For reasons I won't go into in detail, this was not something he was aware of previously, and there is no moral failing on his side. He spent much of the last decade outside the UK, and when he was here his address changed frequently, so correspondence did not reach him.
He is currently not in paid employment and has a number of physical and mental health conditions which make work difficult or unlikely. CMS appear to have applied the default rate of £38 per week during all previous years, without his knowledge, and ridiculous £££ arrears have accumulated as a result.
He has now received a letter threatening enforcement action, including possible driving licence disqualification and the use of bailiffs.
I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience of this from the receiving or paying side. I have a lot of sympathy for those affected by non-payment, and I'm absolutely not looking to argue the principle, but I'm trying to understand what enforcement action is realistically taken in practice and over what sort of timescale.