[size=55:3tv1c6h8]The Telegraph

Romanian families use Big Issue loophole
Romanian families are using the Big Issue to gain access to jobs and benefits in the UK


Two years ago Adrian Oprea was living with his family in a ramshackle hut in a Romanian village with only a handful of farm animals to his name.

Many of his friends had moved to the UK to start a new life and they urged him to do the same.

One thing stood in the way: when his homeland joined the European Union in 2007, Tony Blair’s government had pledged that unskilled migrants from the former Communist country would be restricted from working and claiming benefits in the UK.

But Mr Oprea’s friends told him of a loophole. By selling the Big Issue magazine on the streets, he could register as “self-employed” and gain access to benefits and rights to work for his family.

Now the 24-year-old immigrant lives in a brand new house in Manchester, with eight of his relatives, with the help of the British taxpayer.­­­­ Mr Oprea, who agreed to speak and pose for photographs because he is proud of the home he has provided for his family, said: “It’s very hard living in Romania.

“There are no jobs, and there’s no money. Everything is very expensive. I couldn’t even afford my own house.

“But it is better in England. I could not afford a house like this in Romania. If you find a job here then life is easy.”

Back in 2004, when Poland and seven other eastern European countries joined the EU, their citizens were granted the right to live and work freely in Britain. They arrived in unexpected numbers and Labour suffered a backlash from voters.

To prevent the same thing happening again, the UK took a tougher line three years later when Romania and Bulgaria became the EU’s newest members. Their citizens would be allowed to travel to Britain but not to work or claim benefits.

Mr Oprea left Vrancea, near Bucharest, in August 2009 with his wife, Andreea, 22, and three-year-old son, David.

:: already living in Manchester told them that if they went on to the streets selling the Big Issue in the North magazine, which is intended to provide income for homeless people, then they would gain the right to claim state benefits. They started selling the publication in the city centre.

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 status entitles them to a National Insurance number and the right to claim welfare payments such as working tax credit and housing support, although not jobseekers allowance.

It also grants “dependent” family members the right to work legally in the UK – a right to which Romanian immigrants would not otherwise be entitled.

In April last year Mr Oprea was joined in Britain by his sister, Catalina, 26, and her six-year-old son, Valentin. Then in January this year Mr Oprea’s sister, Renata, 30, brother-in-law, Ionut Codrianu, 31, and their two daughters, Alexandra, 11 and Ana-Maria, 5, moved in with them.

Since September the extended family have lived in a modern, privately-rented, three-bedroom house in a new development in the Gorton area of Manchester, which has a large Romanian community.

The house came kitted out with a new kitchen and carpets. The family have a new television and DVD player, and they own a Peugeot 406 which sits on the drive.

Mr and Mrs Codrianu are now selling the Big Issue and have applied for benefits. If they are successful, the entire household is expected to receive just over £200 a week in child benefit and child tax credit – around £10,500 a year. Mr Oprea has also applied for housing benefit to help meet the £600 a month cost of renting the house.

Of the five adults in the family, all have applied for benefits apart from Catalina, who does not work.

Mr Oprea is the only member of the family who speaks English. He and his wife have now found better jobs – he works as a car wash attendant in Stockport and she works as a part-time cleaner. But he said that his two sisters and his brother-in-law were all “looking for work”, so far unsuccessfully.

He added: “I hope that we can have a good life in the UK. I hope that we can all find jobs and that the children can learn English and go to school here. But it will be difficult. I don’t understand why it is so hard for us all to get work.”

Mr Oprea’s case is one of many that have angered councillors, who claim that some Romanian immigrants are becoming Big Issue sellers solely to gain benefits and rights to work for their families through the loophole.

Many of those who have benefited from the system are members of the Roma gipsy community, also Romanian nationals. Simon Ashley, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Manchester, said some immigrants were selling just a few copies of the magazine each week in order to claim the benefits.

“For some people this is not about genuine self-employment,” he said. “Some families are getting more than the average Manchester wage – around £21,000 a year – in benefits.

“I think the magazine needs to take some responsibility for this and the loophole should be closed. I don’t see the logic in allowing the family of Big Issue sellers rights to work to which they would otherwise not be entitled.”

Founded in London in 1991 by John Bird and Gordon Roddick, the Big Issue now has separate editions in northern England, the south-west, Scotland and Wales.

The Big Life Company, which publishes the Big Issue in the North – sold in cities including Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool – says that more than half of the magazine’s vendors are Romanian or Bulgarian, and almost half are Roma.

The situation has provoked anger among some British vendors, and tensions have boiled over into confrontation.

In 2007, a row over territory led to Romanian thugs threatening to kill a seller of the Big Issue Scotland in Kilmarnock. It was claimed that foreign gangs were buying up the bulk of the magazines and taking the most lucrative pitches. Problems have been reported in other cities including Glasgow and Edinburgh.

William Richardson, 43, who is homeless and sells the Big Issue in the North in Manchester, said he had seen the problem worsen.

“In the last couple of years the number of Romanians selling the magazine seems to have doubled. In the busy times of year, like Christmas and during the summer, you see them everywhere.

“There’s a lot of resentment and anger towards them because we’re on the breadline and they take our business. Things can get very heated.”

Caroline Price, director of the Big Life Company, admitted there had been confrontations but said this happened regardless of the ethnicity of the vendors.

She added: “We don’t encourage immigrants to register to sell the Big Issue, we help whoever asks. We don’t discriminate.

“We see large numbers of them because most are unable to work in this country. Selling the magazine is a very flexible and accessible way to overcome the barriers they face.

“Many of them are homeless or living in overcrowded accommodation and we help those who need it.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are determined to protect the interests of the taxpayer and the benefit system from possible abuse.

“This government will push for stringent controls on workers from new member states being able to access our labour market.”