A State Auditor’s report delivered Tuesday found that many of the horrendous problems experienced last year as North Carolina converted to a centralized processing system have been — or are being — resolved. That was the good news.

The bad news is that the report also cites serious structural inefficiencies in the child-support collection system, including understaffing of the 89 child support enforcement offices that are responsible for helping custodial parents collect the money owed them and continuing problems with faulty or insufficient data.

State Auditor Ralph Campbell made two key recommendations to improve the collection process: Streamline the current system, in which enforcement is divided between support offices and county clerks of court, and beef up enforcement staffing so that officers aren’t overburdened with caseloads.

Campbell recommended that Child Support Enforcement get an additional 299 agents, which would be almost a 30 percent increase from the current staffing level of 1,000. While the bulk of the cost would come from federal funds, the state would still have to pay $4.6 million, which the legislature may be unlikely to fund in a tight budget year.

What shouldn’t be forgotten, however, is that uncollected child support has repercussions and costs that extend far beyond the immediate effect on a particular family. Often, single parents who can’t collect child support have to fall back on other tax-supported social agencies to help supply basic needs for their children.

Even with Rowan County’s improved enforcement efforts, for instance, a third of support payments go uncollected. Those single parents have to look elsewhere for help.

Beyond that, however, there’s the cost to society in lost potential when children grow up in the margins of life with inadequate health care, poor nutrition and lack of other basic necessities. It’s disadvantage enough to grow up without the nurturing stability of a two-parent household, without adding the double-whammy of economic deprivation.