Penalties: we want to encourage greater compliance and greater engagement from liable parents. One way to achieve this is by imposing penalties on parents who fail to meet their obligations. If a parent fails to pay their child support on time, penalties are imposed, and the bill contains improvements to when and how these are applied. The theory is that penalties provide an incentive for parents to meet their child support obligations, but it's become clear that overly punitive penalties can cause liable parents to disengage from the scheme, meaning that child support remains unpaid. Imposing penalties becomes a delicate balancing act: too strict, and parents walk away from the debt and their obligations; too lenient, and they're not incentivised to meet their obligations. 