Foreigners who sell the Big Issue will be entitled to claim housing benefit

[The Spartan]

Yes, and won't have done 7 years by the time they qualify for a state pension either.

Why don't they just change the legislation, benefits are meant to be provided for those that can't work and the vunerable, please note I am applying this to all and not just immigrants as I know loads that do work and do the menial jobs that some people in this country are too lazy to do.

[fullyautomatix]

Benefits are not to be given to people who are on work visa too, the visa clearly states that there is no recourse to public funds. However, no checks are ever made, no passports are verified and claims are approved as soon as they are applied. The way the benefits dept works you would think there is an open money tap or something.

[The Spartan]

No wonder the country is going down the pan, a few of the people I have worked with are looking to leave and work abroad as they're sick of paying to support scroungers and layabouts. It's become a Jeremy Kyle generation

[Arturo Bassick]

She must have lied to The Big Issue too as she does not seem to meet their criteria.

If you are:

Homeless or rough sleeping
In temporary accommodation
In danger of losing a home
Unemployed and facing financial crisis

[JoJoGabor]

Weak, public sector form-fillers let these type abuse the system.

[doomage]

Wait - I'm a foreigner. If I sell the Big Issue during lunch (at a time determined by my ltd company director), can I claim housing benefit? That would help out a lot, West London is not a cheap place to live.

[CheeseSlice]

Romanian Big Issue seller wins right to housing benefit - Telegraph

"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."

IMO the UK should welcome economic migrants. But I dont think she is one of them. Though her personal circumstances are tragic, this country is no longer rich.

This should be a front page story in ... The Big Issue

In big letters on the website:

A hand up, not a hand out

[BrilloPad]

Look on the bright side, she's selling the Big Issue rather than strumming a one string guitar.

Or begging with her disabled child in tow.

[TestMangler]

Look on the bright side, she's selling the Big Issue rather than strumming a one string guitar.

Only because there seems to be a lack of vacancies for one-stringed romanian guitar playing.

Glasgow has one of them on every city centre corner. If not one of them, a tuneless romanian one string fiddle player.