IT'S nice to see that the Prime Minister has a vision of getting all the single parents off Benefits and back to work, but, in the real world, it's not that easy.

The older you get, the more employers shut the door in your face.

It seems that once you reach forty you might as well get in your coffin as far as work is concerned.

Yet, as a workforce, we are one of the most reliable as our kids have grown up or at the stage that they don't need us that much and so we can work.

Last week, I applied for six jobs. Out of the six, I got one interview.

All the others had an age limit of 39.

I am 43 and still have 15 to 20 year's work left in me.

The jobs I am speaking about are just normal ones in a factory or shop or cleaning jobs, but all these employers don't want to know.

Even the Job centre tells you to hide your age or not give it so that employers won't throw out your application form before they have read it.

We don't want much; only a fair crack of the whip.

Give us a chance to show you that we can do the work just like all the others.

Name and address received.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.