One newspaper dubbed it the Child Shambles Agency last week over its failure to make fathers pay maintenance.

Today the beleaguered Child Support Agency (CSA), whose chief executive Doug Smith has resigned, is at the centre of a storm over its record in getting money to single mothers.

Ministers said 12 months ago that the problems would be solved by a simpler maintenance calculation and a £456 million computer system. But now the problem is said to be even worse with up to a million divorced, separated and absent fathers not fully paying their way.

The agency is said to have written off £1 billion in payments it has deemed uncollectable.

One Parent, a pressure group which has given evidence to MPs, says that less than half, 43 per cent, of the money due in the first year of the new system has been collected and passed on to single parents.

Plans to cut the agency’s staff by 2,600 by April 2006 will only deepen the crisis, the group warns.

In evidence to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee at the end of last month, One Parent said the continuing malfunctioning of the computer and phone systems at the CSA, coupled with the very poor compliance and enforcement levels under the new scheme, raised serious questions whether the CSA could do the job it was supposed to do.

The charity called on the Government to consider introducing an "advance maintenance" scheme, whereby parents with care of a child were guaranteed by the State each week at least a proportion of the maintenance they were due. This would enable people to plan for the future based on an assured income.

It emerged in July that complaints to the CSA’s watchdog had risen 52 per cent in the past year, from 1,419 in 2002/2003 to 2,151 last year, 925 of which were accepted for action..

Of the 806 complaints cleared during the year, 370 (42 per cent) were resolved by agreement and 436 (58 per cent) were the subject of formal investigation.

The majority of complaints that were resolved required only "minor corrective" action, such as an apology, or an explanation.

But most - 86 per cent - of investigated cases were fully or partially upheld, suggesting serious and widespread problems with the running of the CSA.

Jodi Berg, the independent case examiner (Ice), blamed delays, poor communication and errors in cases under the old maintenance assessment scheme for the majority of the referrals.

She warned that the failings of the past could become an underlying feature of the new system, saying: "This year the majority of complaint referrals related to old scheme cases, where delay, poor communication and Agency error continue to cause people hardship and worry."

Ms Berg welcomed changes to the Agency’s internal complaints procedures and work to improve the specialist enforcement process, but reported the agency continued to generate a large number of complaints across the whole of its service.

The Ice provides a complaints review and resolution service for CSA clients who have exhausted the Agency’s internal complaints procedure.

The way the CSA calculates child maintenance changed in March last year, using a simplified formula and changing the rules for resident parents on benefits to increase the amount of money received.

Patricia Hollis, the Work and Pensions Minister, admitted when the Ice figures were released that difficulties with the new system had "principally" been caused by computer and telephone systems.

Official figures earlier this month showed that staff at the CSA took an average 13.8 days sick leave in 2003, the highest of any government department or agency. The average sickness leave for civil servants was 10 days.

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