A Christian is fighting the State after job centre bosses stopped his unemployment benefit when he attended an ancient service at Chester Cathedral instead of going to a personal adviser interview.

Graham Hodson, a former RAF air traffic controller who served in the first Gulf War, asked job centre staff if he could postpone the interview at their office by half an hour because he wanted to go along to the cathedral’s Holy Communion service.

When Mr Hodson’s request was turned down he went to the service any way but found he was docked £26 of his Job Seeker’s allowance.

He has unsuccessfully challenged the decision at First Tier and Upper Tier Tribunals but will now take his case to the Court of Appeal and has the backing of the Dean of Chester, the Very Rev Dr Gordon McPhate, Frank Field MP and former Tory cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe.

The 46-year-old former businessman, from Blacon, who was made redundant in February 2012 after working for the emergency services for 10 years, said: “We are living in an increasingly secularised nation but these things have to hold on to their grasp otherwise we end up losing this aspect of tradition which goes back to 1662 and it is the established prayer book of the land.

“If it goes, because people aren’t turning up to it, is it just something else that falls by the wayside?”

Under the regulations, a person who does not attend an interview with an adviser “is to be regarded as not having made a claim for a specific benefit” unless he can show “good cause for his failure to take part in the interview”.

But the regulations also say that a good cause includes “that the established customs and practices of the religion to which the person belongs prevented him attending on that day or at that time”.

“It’s a ridiculous thing that they’ve turned round and said there’s the rule but it doesn’t really apply because you should still have turned up,” added Mr Hodson, who says previous employers have been flexible enough to allow him to attend church services providing there was “no impediment” to the business.

Mr Hodson recently gained a theology degree at the University of Chester and says having a close link to the cathedral is particularly important because he is investigating a life in the ministry.

“For me, it’s the unswerving sense of call. It’s something I’ve come to very late in life and it’s something which I am dedicated to investigate along with the Dean to see if it’s a true and genuine call and, if it is, this forms part of the process. So it’s a deeply held conviction in the Christian faith.”

Mr Hodson can’t believe the waste of time and money the DWP has put into fighting him but insists he “won’t let it go” on a point of principle.

“How much does an upper tribunal judge cost these days?” he asked. He is now back on benefits after gaining a short-term contract at the University of Chester which ended last September.

“I’m finding it slightly difficult because I’m 47 in a few months and whilst I am getting to interviews, I’m not getting through and I‘m on the verge of thinking, is it because I’m too old?”

A DWP spokesman said: “The appellant preferred to attend a service of Holy Communion each Thursday, the day of his interview, the appellant agreed in evidence that, if offered employment, he would make alternative arrangements to attend Holy Communion another time or day and he appreciated that an employer would expect him to be in his work places on Thursdays.”