Have you noticed recently, that a large proportion of those selling ‘Big Issue’ on the streets of the UK are Eastern Europeans?

There is a very good reason for them to do this apparently.

According to the ‘Daily Express’:

Migrant scroungers are bypassing a benefits ban and collecting thousands of pounds in handouts by selling the charity magazines to exploit a legal loophole.

Romanians and Bulgarians are registering as “self-employed” to sell the Big Issue so they can get National Insurance numbers – vital for claiming taxpayers’ cash and work rights for their families.

Details of the backdoor assault on Britain’s soft-touch welfare state provoked outrage and calls for the loophole to be plugged.

John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This scam is a perfect example of how our overly complex tax and benefits system ends up hitting hard-working ­taxpayers in the pocket.

“Too many one-off reforms and sticking plaster solutions over the years have created a whole host of loopholes which cost the ­exchequer billions every year.”

He called for a “wholesale reform” of the welfare system.

“It must be drastically simplified to make it impossible for scammers and con artists to soak ordinary families for their hard-earned cash,” he said.

When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, Britain pledged that their low-skilled migrants would be barred from working or claiming UK benefits without first getting a permit in their homelands.

Four years on, many new immigrants are bypassing the ban by selling the Big Issue.

Vendors buy it for £1 then sell it on for £2 and keep the profit. It is sold by an estimated 3,000 people in Britain. About 40 per cent of sellers in the North are believed to be Romanian gypsies.

Simon Ashley, former Lib Dem leader on Manchester City Council, said some register as vendors, get their national insurance numbers then never return to sell the magazine.

He said: “I believe the Big Issue is allowing itself to be used as a gateway to benefits dependency. These people aren’t homeless, they are all in houses. But because they’ve found a loophole which gives them access to benefits, ­selling the magazine is now an end in itself and not about genuine self-employment.”

Car cleaner Adrian Oprea began selling the Big Issue when he came to Manchester from Romania in 2009 with his wife and son. In April last year, once he had his national insurance number, he was joined by his two sisters their three children and his brother-in-law Ionut Codrianu, 31, and his family.

Mr Codrianu, who does not speak English, and his wife now also sell the magazine. Mr Codrianu has applied for benefits such as working tax credit.

Fay Selvan, owner of Big Issue in the North, denied it encouraged migrants to register as vendors. She said: “We help whoever asks. We don’t discriminate. Any of our vendors are entitled to be self-employed so it is not a loophole, it is the law.”

Even if they do not sell a single copy of the ‘Big Issue’, they are still classed as ‘self employed’ and entitled to claim benefits.

What a crazy country we live in.

These economic migrants are smarter than our legislators, if there is an angle they can exploit in order to enrich themselves at our expense they will find it.

Don’t it make you proud to be British?

GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS

Share this post:

Hide Sites