EVER since it was created in 1993 to help extract child maintenance payments from absent parents, the Child Support Agency has been mired in criticism. Now, following Wednesday's shock resignation of Doug Smith, its chief executive, the Echo looks at how people in Dorset and Hampshire have been affected and what hope they might have for the future.

EVERY week they arrive, letters and e-mails from parents, impoverished and at their wits' end, because of the blundering of the Child Support Agency.

Every single MP in the Daily Echo's circulation area receives them. And most are appalled by the agency's lack of effectiveness and approach.

Poole MP Annette Brooke, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Children's Affairs, spoke for them all when she said: "I can't tell you the amount of cases that I have from people who have suffered at the hands of the CSA. It's absolutely appalling.

"In some cases it's really hard for men, because they are being asked to pay sums they can't afford, but most of the problems are on the women's side, where they haven't received any money at all."

She said the CSA was "hopeless' at tracking down absent parents and "toothless" when it did catch up with them.

"I have got one awful case where the children visit their father each week, yet the CSA says it can't find out where he lives. I have another case where the father was involved in a criminal case and was tracked down by the police, but the CSA said it couldn't find him. Some of the cases are just tragic.

"At the end of the day, it's the children who suffer, because they miss out on all those extras that other children have.

"The government should adopt a child-centred approach that puts the child first. Frankly, the CSA is so appalling it should be disbanded."

A set of damning statistics, elicited from ministers and civil servants by the Select Committee, appears to bear her out.

Each £1 the agency receives costs 54p to collect. A quarter of parents who apply, usually mothers, receive no payment at all.

Currently, £1 billion worth of debts have been written off as "unrecoverable" and £976 million is currently owed to lone parents by the CSA.

Much of the trouble, the committee heard, was down to the agency's new £456 million computer system which is to replace the old one which collapsed during its first weeks of use.

CSA insiders say the new IT network does not allow some of the simplest of changes to be made without throwing up error messages which then "lock" the case.

Pressure group One Parent, which has given evidence to the committee, said only 43 per cent of the money due in the first year had been collected, and plans to cut staff by 2,600 by April 2006 would make things worse.

Chief executive Nicola Simpson said: "The government must set a deadline for getting the systems to work properly."

However, the problems are not just down to the computer.

The chairman of the select committee on work and pensions, Sir Archie Kirkwood, said: "This is not just about computers, it is a systematic failure right across the territory of the agency."

One person who knows exactly what it's like to be on the end of the CSA's incompetence is Liz (not her real name), a mother from West Moors.

"I've been dealing with the CSA for five years now and I have not received a penny of the maintenance I am entitled to. They are useless.

"Every time I ring up, they ask me the same questions to which I give the same answers. It's obvious their computer system doesn't work.

"I know exactly where the father of my son lives, and I've told them, several times. But they tell me they can't find out his address."

Liz says that because she is not on benefits - and therefore, any money paid to her won't go to the government - she is considered a low priority. "My son is owed £15,000. But I wonder if we'll ever see any of it."

She said the CSA has paid her some compensation for its mistakes. "They sent me £50. That would just about cover a pair of training shoes."

A Bournemouth mother told the Daily Echo she considers the CSA "utter rubbish and a complete waste of space".

"This is what I think of the CSA, following many years of trying, crying, pleading and threatening to get the agency to make my ex-husband pay maintenance," she said.

"He has a very lackadaisical approach to his responsibilities, paying when he wants but only if he feels like it. For years he never paid a penny, and still owes me thousands in back payments.

"For the past few months he's been paying up to a month late, throwing my bank balance into disarray and lumbering me with charges.

"Again, my daughter has lost out. The latest upset is my inability to send her on a school trip because I just didn't have the cash in my account when it was supposed to be.

"Is it right that she should suffer because of her father's lack of financial management?

"Years ago, the CSA could have decided to take the maintenance directly from his wages. Even now, the agency refuses to do so, despite my revelation to them about my ex-husband buying a flat.

"This month he said he paid late because he had to pay his solicitor's fees. Yet his daughter is spending her one and only childhood in social housing.

"Any chance of me getting a mortgage has been ruined because of his continued undermining of my finances. The CSA was supposed to help single-parent families like mine, but in reality it allows inequality and heartache to continue."

Do you have a CSA horror story to share? E-mail newsdesk@bournemouthecho.co.uk

First published: November 18