News Shorts & Other Busyness

DoE to Sue Big Issue Editor

Squall 8, Autumn 1994, pg. 10.

The Department of Employment is threatening to sue John Bird, Editor of The Big Issue, for not revealing the names of the 700 people that sell the magazine on the streets of British cities.

For the homeless people that stand on street corners selling the mag, the 35p they make on each issue can obviously be a vital income for keeping body and soul together.

However, fraud officers from the Department’s special project team want to check their names against computer records of those signing on, in order to catch out those working over the prescribed number of hours that unemployed people can spend in paid employment, before losing their entitlement to benefit.