Hey, Readers! How goes it? It's a New 12 Month Cycle and with it comes new hopes and aspirations! If you have been sanctioned, I urge you to please hang in there! There is hope! FOOD BANKS Please, please, please... I know, that could be a James Brown lyric. But I just want to say, please do not feel ashamed to go and get some food from your local Food Bank. I have been there. I know of a woman who is too proud to get help from the Food Bank and she's living on the basics... She recently got sanctioned and, as per usual, the sanction does not make any sense whatsoever. I guess she will have to wait until her little food supply runs out. I tell you when I went without any money for about 5 months the Food Bank was a life saver! Any pride I had left my stomach was telling me that I could be swallowing more than pride if I would just go visit the Food Bank. I am glad that I did go! In fact, I wanted to volunteer to help at the Food Bank as the people were so, so very nice and kind. One of the people working at the Food Bank is a work coach! See? Not all work coaches are bad people! And I never said that in any event! Like I have said, come Wednesday I will get to have my first appointment with my new work coach, who incidentally helped me with the HardShi* Fund, and I am very optimistic that we will get on well. THE SENSELESSNESS OF IT ALL Not only have I been sanctioned since 2013 at around September or October, I have also had the Working Tax Credit rug pulled from under me in October of 2015... And now I have been unduly sanctioned for the months of November and December of 2016. Again, I am hoping to get that money back through a tribunal as the reason for these sanctions are nonexistent and therefore it should be a piece of cake to win! I guess this is why the mysterious decision makers are taking his/her/their sweet time in responding to my Mandatory Reconsideration Notice. Before Xmas, I called up the Service Centre to learn that my Mandatory Reconsideration Notice hadn't been sent to the right channel or channels, the decision maker(s) and that has added to the already lengthy process of the decision making. I honestly think that the decision was made on that day they received it but purposely string it out to make people like me suffer all the more! It is a delay tactic so that I have to wait months to instigate a tribunal. At this rate, I must be known to these mysterious decision makers as the "Tribunal King" as I keep winning these things. Hence why they want to make me wait for as long as possible! OK... So be it! I don't know if you have read, in another update, that I have had to cancel a job interview. My former Tricky Vicky's work coach's line manager is aware that I have had a request to come in for an interview and that I was concerned regarding how to get there without any money. I sent her the info via email which included a snippet of the email that I received from the prospective employer. The line manager wrote me back, via email, and seemed oblivious to the financial problems I am facing, "Bring proof of the interview," I don't know what that would entail. "And bring your travel receipts..." Now, that would a neat trick if I could pull 'em both off. I asked what would constitute proof that I have been to an interview? Nothing came back. Am I thick? It's true... I am not the fastest thinker in the world. I have always been slow. But this does not mean I am stupid. Maybe that's what they think of me in JCP Enfield. I don't know... But I have been wondering what could be used to as evidence to show that I have been to an interview... A photo of the building that the interview was held in, taken on my smartphone? A video or audio recording of the interview? A letter from the prospective employer? What? The email, you say? I guess that the line manager thinks that I would actually go to the trouble of forging an email to make it look like it came from an employer for the sole purpose of influencing the decision makers in charge of releasing the HardShi* Fund. Honestly, do you really think that I have time for all that? INCOMING! At the moment bills are coming in like tie fighters en masse... I get notifications through emails as well as texts and phone calls. I have had to be creative in explaining to the people on the end of the line as to why there is a delay in payments. I am trying to avoid defaulting and getting a County Court Judgement that will affect my credit rating. I am trying to just keep things going the best that I can. It would have been great if I could have attended this job interview; they even wrote me today to say to come in tomorrow but I honestly have to think about the bills that could, again, land me in a huge debt and see me being awarded a CCJ! It is frustrating, to say the least! You can see that sanctioning people's welfare assistance just does not make any sense. Surely, the thinking tanks (hee hee) behind this nonsense can see that people will not be able to function as well without their legal entitlements to welfare assistance. I hate calling it "benefits" because I do not feel that way about it. I have told you before but I will tell it here again - albeit briefly - that I am grateful for the welfare assistance as it helps me to get back on my feet. But I would welcome a good job that would give me a higher standard of living. I think that these Tory MPs really think that a majority of the unemployed want to live solely on benefits. They are wrong! My former Tricky Vicky (evil female work coach) gave me the impression that she couldn't give a toss if I was getting favorable responses to my job applications; it's either that or she thought that I was lying about these responses. It is imperative that my new work coach trusts me. I am a mature adult and I wouldn't say that I have done something knowing that I did not do that something. That job interview could have yielded in employment. So, I am inclined to think that these "sanctions" are a way to cull the population. As you know, some people have died from these unfair sanctions. It puts unnecessary pressure on people who have to rely on welfare assistance. I can tell you that it has put an enormous strain on me and I am actively looking for work! But according to my former Tricky Vicky, I wasn't doing enough work activity. Either she's out of her mind or just plain stupid evil or both! Whatever it is, the facts are there to show her that she was wrong! In the meantime, I have to suffer. A shout out to a friend of mine who has ended up, very unexpectedly, in a wheelchair due to nerve damage. Even though I am going through a tough time there are others out there who are going through worse. My friend has lost the use of her legs (and I sincerely hope this is temporary) and she managed to smile when I saw her on New Year's Eve. Power to her! Don't give up! Don't give in! Get super-logical, analytical and determined. These attributes will help you to win a tribunal - if you, like me, have to go it alone because you can't find the help. We can and will do it! I have done it several times and won, you will win too! I wish I could give you a guarantee but if you don't try you won't know.