DIVORCED father-of-two Richard Day has suffered a setback in his fight with the Child Support Agency (CSA) to get his maintenance payments reduced.

Mr Day, 51, of Market Lavington, has been fighting for a reduced settlement ever since the CSA became involved seven years ago.

His ex-wife lives in the former marital home with their two teenage daughters in Bristol. Mr Day, a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence, lives in Market Lavington with his new partner.

His latest appeal against the CSA was due to be heard on Tuesday by a tribunal in Chippenham but it was adjourned because the CSA failed to provide information to Mr Day which he had requested.

Mr Day said after he and his former wife split up in 1989, they had agreed maintenance payments of £130 a month, which was ratified by a court order, but after the CSA became involved the payments went up to £700.

He is currently paying £300 for his younger daughter, who is 17, and the money is deducted automatically from his bank account as Mr Day has maintenance arrears of £3,000. He no longer has to pay for his 19-year-old daughter.

Mr Day said: "The Child Support Agency has taken £24,000 from me over the last five years. It's tantamount to state theft in my opinion.

"It's a bureaucratic nightmare. Before the CSA got involved we had an amicable arrangement but the system puts you down as an irresponsible citizen. It's damaging the parent-child relationship.

"I am a responsible parent who wants a fair and just settlement, nothing more or less, and to try and re-establish contact with my daughter who I have not seen for nearly a year.

"It's incredibly frustrating. It means I cannot move on with my life and my partner has to go out to work to subsidise these maintenance payments."

Mr Day is appealing against the level of maintenance he is paying, and also wants to pay by direct debit rather than the money being automatically taken from his bank account by the CSA.

He has appealed on several occasions and the amount he paid was reduced on one occasion, but was later increased again.

Mr Day has asked his MP, Michael Ancram, to refer his complaints about the CSA to the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the National Audit Office.

Mr Day is considering resigning from the Territorial Army. He is a captain with the Royal Engineers.

In July Mr Day joined other divorced and separated parents in a demonstration outside the Seend home of Lord Justice Mathew Thorpe, one of the country's most senior appeal judges.

The peaceful protest aimed to raise awareness of the difficulties parents had faced in obtaining access to their children.

A CSA spokeswoman said she could not talk about Mr Day's case.

She added that since the Data Protection Act was introduced in 1998 the CSA had complied with requests for documents in 97 per cent of cases within the required 40 days.