Romanian Big Issue seller gets the green light

[DrFilth]

to claim for housing benefit on top of the £25,000 she already claims


how can a person claim for disability if they can stand outside and walk around in the winter time selling the big issue

do you you think the mail makes some of this up ?

>> £49.30 in disability living allowance and £55.50 in
carers’ allowance. <<

>> He said: ‘This is a victory for people struggling to work to
support their families. Anyone who thinks selling The Big
Issue on a British street in winter is a soft option should
have a go themselves.’ <<



http://www.dailymail....tled-28-000-year.html

[McMouse]

A Romanian sells Big Issue outside a local M&S Simply Food. Don't know if she is claiming any disability or other allowances but on a cold day like today she is well wrapped up, sitting on a fold-away camp chair and gets regular cups of hot drinks from the M&S staff.

[hc4361]

Under UK laws she is not allowed to take employment, but she IS allowed to work on a self employed basis.
Selling The Big Issue is recognised as legitimate self employment.
Being self - employed allows her to claim housing benefit, which she could not get if she did not work.
You do not have to be homeless to sell The Big Issue.

[emmie]

this was the lead in, can't find the link to the programme, but we are being taken for a ride.
As someone pointed out, if you are selling the Big Issue then surely you are homeless.

Bhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/eu
rope/romania/8306850/Romanian-immigrants-sell
-Big-Issue-to-gain-benefits.html

[emmie]

sorry not sure why it didn't link, for heavens sake.

[hc4361]

You don't need to be homeless to sell the Big Issue.

[hc4361]

To sell Big Issue you have to be:
Homeless or rough sleeping
In temporary accommodation
In danger of losing a home
Unemployed and facing financial crisis

http://www.bigissue.com/how-become-vendor

[emmie]

fine, but this country is a joke, the small amount of money i tried to get for an elderly relative, who by the way has contributed to this country all her life, was a nightmare. It took all my efforts to get her a small increase for care costs, and that was after months of trying, and i'm damn well fed up seeing scroungers like this getting all the benefits that were not designed for them. why should my taxes pay for these people, i couldn't go to Romania and do this, so why should they come here and doss down on British taxpayers. If you think it makes me angry, it does.

[hc4361]

Complain to your MP if you are angry about it.

[emmie]

the last time i gave money to a big issue seller will be the last. i saw the man and his companions pissed out of their heads on super strength beer, not putting the money aside for a home, or new clothes, or anything other than getting smashed, so never ever again, and this woman has proved just how toothless our laws are.

[venator]

Well, she isn't any of those, surely!

One technique is to be very loud, tearful and /or angry, play the single parent, foreign and human rights card.

Councils and the Big Issue probably see it as cheaper to give in rather than face a long, expensive, legally aided court case.

I'm not saying this is the case here, as we're only seeing one side, but it's not uncommon.

For heaven's sake, let's get out of the EU, before every person in work is supporting an EU immigrant!

[emmie]

why should i, the law should be that no one gets something for nothing, and if the programme was in any way truthful, then the money they get goes into their large villas and sunny lifestyle back in their home country.
MP's aren't going to do anything about this, it's because we are firmly entrenched in the EU, so they can come and go with ease in the knowledge that they can run to the EU courts if challenged on issues of status.

[DrFilth]

anotheoldgit >> If you think the Daily Mail made some of this up, why did you enter a DM link? <<

aog i asked >> do you you think the mail makes some of this up ? <<

i put the mail link so you could see what they had put as i wonder how they can claim all this money

if or when you try to claim for something you will understand why


>> Surely the best thing would have been to research other sources before posting your thread <<

i have spent over 2 hours looking for another news item that is not related to this story that is now no longer available, i am thinking of taking screen shots of articles just to prove that i have read them




http://s655.photobuck...current=knowsMail.png

[emmie]

http://www.telegraph....-housing-benefit.html

[DrFilth]

>> "I came to the UK in 2007 to look for work. The only work I could find was selling the Big Issue on the streets of Bristol. I can keep half of the money I take and I usually make around £100 per week. <<

bet she is glad she did not find a proper job :)

[emmie]

DF, exactly.

[NOX]

Listen this is very simple and applies to anyone no matter what their ethnicity- her child is disabled so she gets DLA for HIM ( anywhere between £19.55 and £73 depending on how disabled he is), because she is his carer she gets Carer's Allowance £55 ish per week. she then gets approx £100 from the big issue sales ( which like ti or not is a job- she could simply do nothing and be only marginally worse off). That gives this lady a grand total income of between £174 and £228 per week to keep herself and her disabled child. If your circumstances were the same then you would be entitled to the same money. LHA differs from area to area but her LHA will only be a 2 bed property wherever that is- so I would be getting too jealous if I were you, this woman is living in poverty.

[emmie]

Nox, then my mother is living in abject poverty, as she lives, survives on a damn sight less. That as they say is what makes my blood boil. Her neighbour, also a woman of senior years, who like her husband paid into the system all their lives, also struggles, and she gets nothing at all from the state because her deceased husband left a moderate pension, which the law deems she can live on. So no free prescriptions, no free housing, no free council tax, but why bother with the rest, it seems to me the system that was put into place all those years ago, so that many people in Britain didn't end up back in the poor house, has now become a boon for some of the feckless here and abroad. She may have a disabled son, so what, she doesn't have a proper job, if she did then maybe she would have contributed a damn sight more in the five years she has lived here.

[DrFilth]

sorry nox i must agree with em you say >> so I would be getting too jealous if I were you, this woman is living in poverty. <<

this woman is living in poverty what a load of crap

[hc4361]

She is not allowed to take a job that is not self employed.
That is the law of this country.

[emmie]

then to paraphrase, the law is an ass sir.