Fewer than one in eight of the extra military support staff the Ministry of Defence declared last March to be "essential" to the running of the Territorial Army has been recruited because of a shortage of cash.

Despite a promise by defence ministers to appoint 244 administrators to handle training, welfare and employer support for the part-time soldiers being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, just 31 are in place 16 months later.

TA officers say a "stealth freeze" has effectively ruled out further recruitment of more permanent staff for the foreseeable future, leaving the force with unresolved pay, mobilisation and family problems.

As revealed by The Herald last month, the MoD is already seeking to make a £5m saving in the TA budget which will mean halting the intake of front-line volunteers for the next 12 months in units which have not "contributed significantly" to operations abroad.

More than 13,000 of the UK's 31,000 reservists - including 1000 Scots - have been deployed since 2003 to plug gaps in the overstretched regular forces. Six have been killed and 16 wounded.

The contribution made by citizen-soldiers amounts to 21 battalions'-worth of troops to a regular Army which can field only 39 battalions of infantry - the fighting element needed most to combat Iraqi insurgents and Afghan Taliban.

It has also been learned that the formation of new units of desperately needed helicopter technicians, engineers and supply and transport specialists earmarked for support of medical squadrons will not take place until April 2009 at the earliest.

Mark Lancaster, a Conservative MP who is also a major in the TA, said: "The proposed cutback of £5m for the reserve forces is the equivalent of a reduction of £50m for the regular Army. That is not an exaggeration.

"It is not only capability that will be hit. It will also impact on personnel. The manpower turnover in the TA runs at about 30% a year. Once every three years, we lose a third of the average unit and have to train new recruits from scratch to replace those who have left.

"If that recruitment tap is turned off for 12 months, it may result in a saving for that year. But it is false economy. The gap it creates will have an incredibly dramatic impact on unit strength and deployability in years two three and four. Some TA units will simply not recover."

According to the MoD: "A range of measures were considered collectively during the department's planning round to balance the defence programme and ensure all areas of defence, including the Territorial Army, operate as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.

"It was judged we could make a small adjustment to TA expenditure to ensure resources were allocated in line with priorities, while ensuring TA support to current operations remained unaffected."

A report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned last week the regular forces were already 5850 personnel short of full strength.

Past cuts in recruitment have had a damaging longer-term effect on manning in some areas, but budget constraints are preventing the MoD from recruiting enough to make up for the shortfall.