More than �2bn owed by absent parents towards their children's upbringing has been written off by the Child Support Agency.

Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Webb, who released the figures, says that up to 200,000 are dodging their payments.

It is mind-boggling that uncollected maintenance payments of �2bn can be simply written off

Steve Webb

The figures prompted the Lib Dem MP to call for the scrapping off the CSA, which has been dogged by controversy during its nine year history.

He says that the Inland Revenue should take over the role, pointing out that it collects 91% of taxes owed each year while the CSA writes off about 30% each year.

Fiasco

"The continued failure of the Child Support Agency means that hundreds of thousands of children are not getting the financial support that is theirs by right," said Mr Webb.

"It is mind-boggling that uncollected maintenance payments of �2bn can be simply written off.

"It is time for the Government to admit that the CSA has been a fiasco from the start and to scrap it.

"The government's simplistic formula-based approach will create rough justice for many families. We believe the child support system must take account of the fact that each family is different.

"Reform is urgently needed. The CSA has recovered little money, obtained few results and has no future."

'Horrendous prospects'

The CSA costs about �290m a year to run and its staff make 300,000 inquiries to the Inland Revenue about missing parents each year and another 20,000 about the earnings of self-employed parents, says Mr Webb.

A new computer system is also facing difficulties and will not now be brought on stream until 2005.

It was created to provide simple maintenance level calculations based on 15% of a parent's income for one child, 20% for two and 25% for three.

"They have tried and tried to reform and change the CSA and it has not worked. The prospects for the future are horrendous," Mr Webb added.