‘Huge increase’ in Big Issue vendors needing help during cost-of-living crisis

The Big Issue has reported a huge increase in the number of its vendors needing help to pay for food and fuel.

The organisation renewed its call to the public to support by subscribing or making a contribution through the Big Issue Foundation to help vendors.

The Big Issue Group set up subscriptions to the magazine as a response to the pandemic crisis, but said they were just as important now during freezing cold temperatures and the cost-of-living crisis, and with millions living in fuel poverty.

Jim Hannah, 63, who sells the magazine on Dove Street in Norwich, said: “My pitch is completely empty in the mornings so I’m doing late morning and into the afternoon.

“Those online subscriptions are bringing me back up to somewhere where I was before the pandemic.

“The subscriptions have been a game-changer. If they hadn’t come in I don’t know what would have happened. Hopefully things will pick up at Christmas.”

Big Issue vendor, Hugh Palmer, 73, who sells outside St Paul’s Tube station in London, explained: “People working from home has really hit me here. The thing about subscriptions is they’re really important.”

Lord Bird, founder of Big Issue Group and a crossbench peer, said: “This winter is the worst in 45 years, with nearly seven million in fuel poverty, soaring rents and rapidly rising food prices.

“Now our vendors have biting cold and snow to contend with which is why we are urging people to support our vendors by buying a subscription to the magazine this Christmas or make a contribution through our Foundation.

“Our vendors rely on magazine sales for their income, but with freezing cold temperatures and the mounting financial pressures, the stable income provided by magazine subscriptions is more important than ever.”