Online job application forms don’t give people who have been in prison a lot of options. Tick the box that says “yes”, you have a criminal record, and the computer program automatically ends the application. Tick “no”, hoping you can explain what happened to a sympathetic interviewer face-to-face, and you risk being rejected for dishonesty.

Not that sending in a CV and covering letter will make things any easier: most employers just aren’t interested in hiring ex-offenders, said Jocelyn Hillman, chief executive of Working Chance, a charity that helps women with criminal records into employment.

“It is hard for any ex-offender to find work, but it is harder for women,” she said. “Many of them want to work with children but aren’t allowed to, or they want to do office jobs like bookkeeping but get rejected. Men can go and work on building sites and no one cares about their record.”

Having qualifications doesn’t help: a criminal record can stop a woman returning to her profession after leaving prison, while having a degree means she’s overqualified for non-graduate jobs. Ms Hillman — who will launch a campaign in the House of Lords next week to persuade employers to look beyond criminal records — tells the story of an accountant who had been imprisoned for a fraud-related offence: “I made her rewrite her CV to put right at the top why a fully qualified accountant was applying for this job that was below her level of experience. I had her put that she was an exoffender first, to explain why she was doing it and that she had changed. But she never heard back from them.”

Sammy Darby, 36, has a degree and used to work in television post-production, but after her son was born she suffered from severe post-natal depression: “I really think that was one of the most significant factors behind my offending.” She does not want to go into detail but said it was her only brush with the law. Sammy received an 80-hour community service order, a £450 fine and a year’s probation. She has been job hunting for nearly a year since, without any success, although she attributes this partly to the recession. “I am sure that when the economy starts to pick up [and she discloses her record at interviews], I will find it has an impact.”

Ms Hillman finds it frustrating that business people praise her work but shy away from getting involved. “When I ask why, they say that their clients wouldn’t like it. But unless they tell them, their clients won’t even know. It’s not as if I am saying make [an ex-offender] your finance director — just take them on as a receptionist.”

Even those that employ ex-offenders aren’t always keen to promote it. Ms Hillman asked one organisation for a quote, only to be told it couldn’t give one as no one knew it employed ex-offenders and preferred to keep things that way.

“My dream is to get Richard Branson or Philip Green to stick their heads above the parapet and say ‘I employ ex-offenders and I am proud of it’, because once we get a few people like that, perceptions will change.”

Ms Hillman added: “In prison they get off drugs and can get an education, but when they come out, no one will give them a job. If we won’t give people a second chance, why are we surprised when they go back to stealing?”

Case study: You need help to start again

Cecilia Bruce-Annan, 37, does not try to hide her criminal past. “For five years I was a drug user and I was sent to prison six times, mostly for not turning up to court because I was high,” she said. “But three years ago I decided to change my life. I realised I had kids and just could not continue to live all zombie-eyed.”

She quit drugs — she has been clean for three years and two months, she said — and acquired qualifications in health, social care and drug awareness, with the aim of finding work supporting other recovering drug users.

But after two years of looking for a job, she had only managed to get two interviews, neither of which resulted in a thank you but no thank you letter, let alone a job. Three weeks ago she was referred to Working Chance, and on Monday she starts at a homelessness charity on a voluntary training placement that may well lead to paid work in the future.

“They pushed my name out there and marketed me . . . and sat in the interview with me. They helped me to prepare for it so I knew what I wanted to say, but when I got nervous I forgot things. Having [someone] there gave me confidence.”

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