Emma was undertaking a City and Guilds diploma, training in horticulture, gaining work experience in a nursery, and attending a course on starting your own business, when she was told she would need to join the mandatory Work Programme. She was told her existing work experience did not count. Emma says, “I feel within the next two months I will have a job. But I cannot do this if I am working in Poundland or similar, getting experience in a field I have no interest in and that will ultimately only look incongruous on my CV. I’m a single mum who wants to balance working towards the good of society, and the people around me, with bringing up a healthy and happy daughter. Being treated as if I am trying to get out of working, even while producing evidence to the contrary, has really affected my morale.”