While politicians debate delaying minimum wage increases for young people, a different kind of youth crisis is quietly overwhelming our courts. Child Arrangement Orders for contact — the legal mechanism when parents can't agree who sees the children and when — have exploded from just 26 cases in 2022 to 31,876 in 2023.

That's not a typo. Family courts processed over 122,000% more disputed contact cases in a single year. To put that in perspective: if you lined up all those case files, they'd stretch for nearly two miles.

Each case represents a family torn apart, children caught in the middle, and taxpayers footing the bill for an overstretched justice system. The average family court case costs around £3,000 in administrative and judicial time alone. That puts the price tag for these additional cases at roughly £95 million — money that could have funded 3,000 new teachers or 2,500 police officers for a year.

The timing tells its own story. These figures cover the period when the cost-of-living crisis really bit, when housing costs soared, and when relationship stress reached breaking point for thousands of families. Financial pressure doesn't just empty bank accounts — it destroys marriages and partnerships, leaving children as collateral damage.

What's particularly striking is the sheer volume. In 2022, disputed child contact was so rare it barely registered in court statistics. By 2023, it had become a significant drain on judicial resources. Family court judges, already dealing with backlogs from COVID delays, suddenly faced a tsunami of parents who couldn't agree on basic contact arrangements.

The ripple effects go far beyond the courtroom. Each disputed contact case typically involves social workers, child psychologists, and legal aid — if parents qualify. Many don't, forcing them to represent themselves in emotionally charged hearings about their children's futures. The system creaks under the weight.

Behind every one of those 31,876 cases is a child whose parents couldn't sort things out themselves. Research consistently shows that protracted contact disputes harm children's mental health and academic performance. We're not just looking at a court administration problem — we're watching a generation of children navigate their parents' inability to cooperate.

The Ministry of Justice hasn't explained this sudden surge. But the numbers don't lie. While Westminster argues over budget watchdogs and Parliament renovations, Britain's families are falling apart at record speed, and it's costing us all. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics -- Family_Court_Tables__Jul-Sep_2024_ -- Table_3)