Hi there, Dear Readers! I hope that all is well with you. I also hope that you are keeping strong; never allow others to make you feel less than. As an individual who has gone through systematic sanctions that lead to tribunal victories, I can tell you that the power the DWP/JCP/Universal Credits/Tax Credits have over us is illusionary. What causes some people to break and give up entirely is to be made to feel worthless; made to feel that you, me, we don't count for anything. Of course, this is very wrong and what these institutions want you to think. Stop thinking that way and fight for your rights to live as a free human being. RIGHT WING STUPIDITY You only have to look at Facebook to see hatred being expressed towards Muslims. How did one person put it, "What they practise is absolute filth," Yet this person is right (far right) behind the Tories and what they are doing to not only the NHS but the Welfare System! This person, presumably, thinks it's okay to steal the welfare assistance from the most vulnerable in society. I presume that this person will never sign this petition as the thought is, "You should work! There is no excuse for you to be sitting at home doing nothing," and fair enough. Yes, I am physically fit, compos mentis and available for work! But this person probably hasn't factored into account that there are people who aren't as fortunate as me. There are people with serious illnesses and disabilities. This person is a Thatcherite and, I'd imagine, that person would be happy with the millions that the Panama Man wanted to spend on a museum to pay homage to her achievements. What's ironic is that there is an increasing number of ex-army living rough on the streets due to cuts to the NHS and the implementations of senseless sanctions. How can this person be proud of being a rightwinger when ex-army are dashed like dirt? I remember all the commotion that was made about the army returning from The Falklands! The British army victorious! Whoop whoop! Today, it is a very different story. Today, soldiers are returning from the Middle East with severe injuries and disfigurements. Soldiers return traumatised and are never the same again. Yet this joke of a government refuses to invest in Mental Health Care. As you know, we get sanctioned for the most idiotic of reasons. Common sense is thrown out of the window. Stupidity rules! This rightwinger would be the first to want to lock up someone who mugged an old lady or gentleman and throw away the key but thinks it is perfectly acceptable as to what the government is doing to the vulnerable. Remember: The UK is based in Europe and not in a remote region of the world where the Western military has spent a lot of time, money and blood on removing tinpot dictators! This is 21st Century Britain. It's like the graphic novel and movie, V for Vendetta never happened. THE DELUSIONAL WORK COACH (COAX) Yes, I have a new work coach or coax, as I put it. I like her a lot. Again, she's a vast improvement over my last one who I have dubbed "Tricky Vicky". My new work coax speaks with crystal clarity and I wish I could have gotten her from the start. I have been unemployed for a year now. I did not want to be on Universal Credit. If you have been following/reading my updates, you'd know that I was self-employed and on Working Tax Credit until the Tax Credits Office decided to use falsehoods to stop my Working Tax Credit thus effectively killing my business. The point that I wanted to make regarding my work coach/coax and a majority of work coaches/coaxes is that they - with the exception of one or two - should be intelligent enough to know that this current system of sanctions is utterly stupid! Essentially, sanctions to the unemployed are the equivalent of taking a hammer to people's feet and then telling them to run as fast as they can! It is so hard for me to believe that my current work coach/coax can justify sanctions. Or maybe she's trying to ease the pain by getting me (and others) to tow the line. But if the line is filthy you wouldn't want to touch it, would you? BEING OVER A CERTAIN AGE, THE WORK COAX & SELF-EMPLOYMENT One of the things that my lovely new work coax has said to me was, "I think the reason why you are still unemployed is because you are working on your self-employment ideas..." When I heard those words my immediate thought was, 'Oh, shit! I've got another Tricky Vicky!' Let me explain something to you... When you are over the age of 35, unemployed and trying to get back in work you will find it very, very difficult. You should know that there is a disturbing trend for employers to consign people over 35 to the scrapheap! And this is why most work coaxes will try to coax people like me into taking a job in customer services where they perceive that we will live happily ever after sitting in a cosy chair taking inbound calls. WRONG! You will find that in most industries the employer wants to save money by paying a young workforce a lot less. Or employ the Polish and any other immigrant who are all too willing to accept less; less is more (than what they had in their own countries). Being over 35 and finding a job is not an easy thing at all! Of course, it helps if you have skills but these days over 35-year-olds constantly face a barrage of school, college, and university leavers. A 16-year-old could leave school with no qualifications but if this 16-year-old and I applied for a non-skilled customer services job the 16-year-old would most likely get it over me. Cheap labour is exactly what it says on the tin. So, what I have done is to make myself available as a freelance/ad hoc worker in the area of Social Media Marketing. That is not exactly the same as being self-employed full-time. I would be working in the capacity of a freelancer. When I printed up some business cards to hand out to people in the hope that I would be able to do some work that I could add to my CV my former work coax, Tricky Vicky, said that this is not "work activity". However, she is wrong. She is wrong because Universal Credit will take 65 pennies from every £1 I make when declaring such work. I have no problem in doing a bit of Social Media Marketing, earning a small amount for my efforts and declaring this to my work coax. At least it shows that I am trying to find work through unconventional means. Some people may be content to sit there using the "one-click" application method but that's too passive for me. Also, an important thing to consider is this: If employers aren't hiring me because of Age Discrimination then what must I, can I do? Should I walk into a Graphic Design establishment with an explosive vest, "If you don't give me a job I am gonna blow myself up and I am taking some of you with me!" Well, self-employment could very well be the solution. The work coax is taking the following text out of context: "Identify their transferable skills and how they can sell these to prospective employers..." And... "Focus them on the advantages of working and increasing their financial independence, using their own initiative to drive the requirements..." The texts above are taken from this House of Commons website page: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmworpen/549/54907.htm Make sure that you read it! My former work coax did not do any of that. What she tried to do is take my skills and capabilities and forced Customer Services upon me. Even my new work coax is doing the same albeit with a little more subtlety. Sadly, people who are seriously looking into transferring their skills, like me, into self-employment, are being treated as though it is a clever way to dodge work. At least that's been my experience thus far at JCP Enfield. I reckon because it can take some considerable time and effort for a new business to generate an income, let alone profit, the work coax may be instructed to discourage clients going the self-employment route. But I honestly think that self-employment could be the solution to people over the age of 35 who just can't, not for the lack of trying, find work. THE NEW ENTERPRISE ALLOWANCE SCHEME (NEA) I did the New Enterprise Scheme years ago and the business advisors were of a high calibre. Unfortunately for me, I chose to start a record label and shortly afterwards there was a decline in CD sales due to the Internet and the MP3 audio format. As you know, people today do not buy music the way they used to. So, my business crashed and burned. However, I didn't run back to claim welfare. No! I found a job in telesales (never again) and tried my best to keep my record label going. I did manage to stay away from welfare for a considerable amount of time. Last year in April I tried the NEA (once again) and I was shocked at how bad it had gotten. I was shocked to see that the business advisors were practically nonexistent. I don't think in the time I was on the NEA, from April to September 2016, that I had a one-on-one session with my "business advisor". We must have talked a couple of times on the phone and sent a few emails back and forth and that was it! The only time I heard from those people who were running the NEA was when they wanted to sell me a business course which meant that I would have to take out a careers development loan to pay for it. So, if I had managed to be persuaded by these persistent calls I would have had a career development loan to pay back as well as any loan that I might have gotten from the NEA to run my business. The NEA shouldn't be concentrating their efforts on selling its clients courses and putting them into debt as a result! They should have been ensuring that the business has every chance to trade and to survive the first year! The first year is the hardest! It's too bad that these so-called "business advisors" couldn't put much effort into helping me with my business. Under the right conditions, I would have happily signed off - even though I am supposed to be on Universal Credit for life! One of my main complaints is that neither my former work coax, Tricky Vicky, or my former "business advisor" could take me through the process of signing off - so-to-speak - and running the business. My business plan had factored Working Tax Credit for the first year as I would be just about breaking even. Nobody could tell me if there was an equivalent to Working Tax Credit now that is being phased out. When Tricky Vicky opened her mouth regarding the NEA she just sounded confusing (she's confusing in general and gets confused herself). I could have understood her better if she was speaking Japanese. I think Google Translate would have short-circuited trying to decipher her babble. I was doing my utmost to get the elements together that would have enabled me to start trading and trying to understand Tricky Vicky was truly distressing. My question is: Who sanctions these people - the crap work coach/coax and dodgy "business advisor"? I have spoken to a number of people who had the same "business advisor" that I had and have experienced something similar to me. Someone told me that they had an appointment with the very same "business advisor" who simply didn't turn up! What's that all about? Who are these people that they should dash the hard work that I and others have put into finding self-employment??? If they can't do their jobs then they ought to be fired let alone sanctioned! Thank you for reading! No word of this update/blog is a lie. I am just telling you how it is. If you think this joke for a government is doing right by people, like me, who are trying their hardest to help themselves then you might have caught the Stupid virus. The bad news is that there is no cure for you.