Lone parents often find it hard to get back into the job market but it may be easier than they think. Women's EditorChristen Pears speaks to one woman who has benefited from the New Deal

AS a mother of four, Marise Barclay thought she would never get back into the workplace. With her children to look after and the household to run, she had no time to look for jobs, let alone fill in application forms and go for interviews.

"It was impossible. About ten years ago, I was running a care home for the mentally ill but then my circumstances changed and I had to stop working for a while. I wanted another job and I even went to college but I soon realised that wasn't going to help. I was up at three o'clock in the morning sometimes filling in forms but I was just too tired to concentrate so I never did it properly."

But the 43-year-old, who lives in Thornaby, was determined not to give up and when her youngest daughter, Bethany, was just 11 months old, she decided to do something about it. Despite having taken a range of courses for anything from maths to psychology, she still wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

She visited her local Jobcentre, where she was introduced to Lone Parent Advisor Wendy Drawbridge. Wendy told her about job searching, training and also carried out a benefits assessment to show Marise how much better off she could be by working.

They also discussed voluntary work, so when Marise spotted an advert for a volunteer worker at the Cleveland Domestic Violence Forum, who were willing to pay childcare costs while she worked for them, she jumped at the chance.

"It was a really good opportunity. I could fit it round looking after my children and I gained a lot of experience, which I could put on my CV."

For the next 18 months she did everything from administration work and working on a telephone helpline to giving presentations to the police and social services departments about domestic violence. She even had a safety leaflet published which advised victims of domestic violence how to keep themselves safe.

But, in July last year, the Forum told Marise they could no longer pay her childcare costs. Once again, she visited Wendy, who was able to access childcare funding that allowed Marise to concentrate her efforts on getting a job.

She soon spotted a vacancy for a support worker with North Yorkshire County Council's social services department, applied for the job and was invited to an interview.

Once again, the New Deal was able to help by providing money for a suit for Marise to wear to the interview. And when she got the job, Wendy was able to fast track her application form for Working Family Tax Credit, arrange for her benefits and housing benefit to be extended while she waited for her first pay packet and helped her with her car tax and insurance for the car that she needs as part of her job.

Over the last year, more than 900 lone parents in Teesside have taken advantage of the financial and practical help on offer from the New Deal for Lone Parents.

Marise says: "It's hard being a single parent because that in itself is a full time job, but there's a lot of advice and support out there and I would encourage anyone to take up any opportunity that arises to help break the cycle of living off benefits. I hope I'm being a good role model for my children and other lone parents by showing them that work is a real option and that no matter what it takes, you can achieve it."

Minister for Work Nick Brown recently launched a new initiative, the Outreach Programme, to encourage more lone parents and the unemployed partners of benefit claimants to join up to the New Deal programmes which lead to work or training.

The programme targets those living in rural communities, inner city areas or housing estates with high levels of workforce inactivity and in ethnic minority communities.

Mr Brown says: "The Government is committed to eradicating child poverty in a generation and halving it by 2010. One of the ways we propose to do that is by getting 70 per cent of Britain's lone parents into work by that date and this proactive outreach approach plays an important part in moving towards that target. Nine out of ten lone parents have told us that they want to work and we're absolutely committed to helping those people do so."

* For more information about help and support available to lone parents, call 0800 731 8968 or call your nearest Jobcentre or Jobcentre Plus office.