'Deadbeat dads' list 'a gimmick'

And opposition parties accused ministers of dragging their feet over the scrapping of the CSA, as it emerged the transition to the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-Mec) will take up to six years.

Launching the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill, Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said the new powers would "mean that non-payment brings real and lasting penalties". He said C-Mec would "deliver a system that puts the needs of the children who depend on it first, and ensures that families and children do not slide into poverty when parents split up".

The new Commission will be able to deduct cash direct from non-payers' bank accounts, as well as take away their passports or driving licences, tag them and impose curfews if they fail to support their children. And it will be able to charge absent parents for the cost of pursuing them if they default on payments, potentially saving the taxpayer millions of pounds.

Under the new system, parents will be encouraged to come to private agreements on financial support for children when they separate, rather than being required to comply with officially-set maintenance arrangements, as imposed by the CSA.

Lone parents on low incomes will be allowed to keep more of the maintenance cash they receive without losing benefits.

Around 100 lone parents - most of them mothers - will receive letters from the CSA in the next few days, asking if they are happy for their former partners to be named on the internet for failing to support their children financially.

The first names on the list of shame - expected to be published around the end of this month - will be fathers convicted during the first three months of this year of withholding the information the CSA needs to force them to pay maintenance.

But Chris Pond, chief executive of the charity One Parent Families, warned: "Naming and shaming 'deadbeat dads' may grab the headlines, but will make little difference to hardcore non-payers and could cause real distress to the children involved, who could face bullying at school as a result.

"It's no substitute for concerted and systematic action to chase up missed payments and to pursue those who lie about their finances to reduce their liabilities for their children."