Smash hit

It called on the CSA to draw up contingency plans - including "the abandonment option" - to be presented to Parliament by Easter, in case the system cannot be made to work.

Tom Warsop, managing director of the Department for Work and Pensions account at EDS, admitted that there had been "problems with some aspects of the IT programme", but claimed that "significant progress" had now been made.

In addition, the committee was fiercely critical of the CSA’s senior management, blaming it for a "multitude of problems" within the agency.

"The senior management team has failed to lead the agency through significant cultural shift," it said. "There is an apparent lack of training for frontline staff, guidance and procedures appear to be lacking, and there is little evidence of adequate monitoring to ensure frontline staff follow procedures."

It said the agency should be more aggressive in pursuing absent parents - mostly fathers - who fail to pay. More people should have their driving licences cancelled or their pay docked to persuade them to cough up, it said.

Non-resident parents should be obliged to tell the CSA when they moved house, and P45 forms - issued to people when they change jobs - should indicate that maintenance is being deducted from earnings.

Alan Johnson, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said later that he would not rule out the abolition of the CSA.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said the Government would look at the committee's recommendations, although he warned that simply transferring the responsibilities to another department may not be the solution.

"I certainly wouldn’t rule out the nuclear option of moving to a completely new system," he said. "But I think the select committee would agree with me that we will only do that when we are absolutely convinced this system just isn’t going to work. At the moment, although it is bad, the system is improving."

He praised CSA staff, saying they were not to blame for the problems, adding that a new chief executive would start soon, along with a chief operating officer and a director of enforcement.

But Theresa May, the shadow secretary of state for the family, called for a "root and branch" look at the CSA. She accused the Government of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on changes which had only served to make it worse.

Ms May said the concept behind the CSA was right, but payments had to get through to the people who needed them.

"What we have seen over the last couple of years with this new computer system is that it has simply failed some of the most vulnerable and poorest people in this country."

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