The 350 people who sell Big Issue North are self-employed, buying magazines from offices across the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber for £1.50 before selling them on the streets for £3. This means that they are not eligible for furlough, and as they cannot work from home, hundreds of homeless and vulnerably housed people now find themselves without a source of desperately needed income.

During the first lockdown, frontline staff paid out a total of £500 each day to support vendors’ cost of living, from rent and bills for those in their own accommodation to essential shopping and transport. This time, we expect to pay out even more, as we experienced an influx of new vendors when the first lockdown was lifted, and the bitter cold will lead to an increased need for help with accommodation and bills. We estimate that we will need £10,000 to support all of our vendors through this period of lockdown.

There are several ways that members of the public can help:

Make a donation to our hardship fund, providing everything vendors need to survive the weeks ahead, by texting HARDSHIP to 70970 to give £5, going to http://easydonate.org/HARDSHIP, or scanning the QR code.

Continue to buy Big Issue North either in Sainsbury’s (including online), Co-Op, McColl’s or Booths, or online at https://issuu.com/bigissuenorth. Half the cost of each magazine will go directly to our hardship fund, with the rest covering production costs.
Subscribe to Big Issue North, either by purchasing a three, six or twelve month subscription package at https://shop.bigissuenorth.com/, or by taking out a weekly direct debit at https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0003E9T4AAG1.

Shop at the official Big Issue North online shop, https://shop.bigissuenorth.com/.

Our top product is our new quarterly subscription magazine, The New Issue, which contains real stories – beautifully told. It offers stunning photography combined with high-quality independent writing, covering everything from changing landscapes and social issues to lifestyle and fiction. Other items include back issues, music merchandise, handmade jewellery and homeware and the Big Issue North 2021 calendar, featuring recipes for twelve vendors’ favourite dishes, transformed by The Creameries chef and Eat Well MCR founder Mary-Ellen McTague.

Buy a mask from www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MancMadeltd, with £1 from every sale going to the Big Issue North hardship fund.

"Judges have cracked down on the scandal of poor EU migrants selling The Big Issue as a back door to claiming benefits.
Becoming a vendor of the magazine for homeless people allows them to register as self-employed and then pocket taxpayer-funded handouts." Daily Mail.

"The Mail on Sunday last week spoke to Big Issue sellers in several British cities. In Glasgow, five of the seven vendors we found were Romanian.
The sole British seller claimed that luxury cars arrived at the city’s distribution depot at 6am each Monday to pick up copies." Daily Mail

"
Romanian families use Big Issue loophole - The Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk › news › uknews › immigration


All Big Issue sellers are required to declare themselves self-employed because they buy bundles of the magazine and keep the profits when they sell them. This allows them access to welfare benefits.

Daily Express Romanian Big Issue sellers have taken over from those people in Britain trying to earn a living by taking advantage of a benefits loophole.

Originally Posted by said

"Judges have cracked down on the scandal of poor EU migrants selling The Big Issue as a back door to claiming benefits.
Becoming a vendor of the magazine for homeless people allows them to register as self-employed and then pocket taxpayer-funded handouts." Daily Mail.

"The Mail on Sunday last week spoke to Big Issue sellers in several British cities. In Glasgow, five of the seven vendors we found were Romanian.
The sole British seller claimed that luxury cars arrived at the city’s distribution depot at 6am each Monday to pick up copies." Daily Mail

"
Romanian families use Big Issue loophole - The Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk › news › uknews › immigration


All Big Issue sellers are required to declare themselves self-employed because they buy bundles of the magazine and keep the profits when they sell them. This allows them access to welfare benefits.

Daily Express Romanian Big Issue sellers have taken over from those people in Britain trying to earn a living by taking advantage of a benefits loophole.

The Daily Fail. Must be true then. Not only is your latest drivel highly questionable, your also basing it on an article that’s almost 10 years old.

Originally Posted by donkey22

The Daily Fail. Must be true then. Not only is your latest drivel highly questionable, your also basing it on an article that’s almost 10 years old.

So - these reports are wrong then? I evidently don't see what you see - I must go to specsavers.

Originally Posted by said

So - these reports are wrong then? I evidently don't see what you see - I must go to specsavers.

The Daily Mail is a notorious right wing rag renown for printing lies. Even at University we were told that assignments that used this rag as source material would be rejected. Like I said, this story was doing the rounds 9/10 years ago, making it completely irrelevant to the above story. Never mind specsavers, just go to the newsagents and start buying more reputable reading material.

Originally Posted by donkey22

The Daily Mail is a notorious right wing rag renown for printing lies. Even at University we were told that assignments that used this rag as source material would be rejected. Like I said, this story was doing the rounds 9/10 years ago, making it completely irrelevant to the above story. Never mind specsavers, just go to the newsagents and start buying more reputable reading material.

It’s RENOWNED, not renown.

Originally Posted by donkey22

The Daily Mail is a notorious right wing rag renown for printing lies. Even at University we were told that assignments that used this rag as source material would be rejected. Like I said, this story was doing the rounds 9/10 years ago, making it completely irrelevant to the above story. Never mind specsavers, just go to the newsagents and start buying more reputable reading material.

In the interests of balance - was the Daily Mirror subjected to similar prejudices?

Originally Posted by gazaprop

In the interests of balance - was the Daily Mirror subjected to similar prejudices?

Of course not, left wing rags always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Originally Posted by gazaprop

In the interests of balance - was the Daily Mirror subjected to similar prejudices?

No tabloid articles either.