To tell healthy, fit looking, well dressed beggar to get a job?

[duvetcovereddissident]

He is not a local beggar, all of whom I know, and he does not in any way look homeless. He looks to be about 30, healthy and fit, - much fitter than me! Well dressed and clean - much better dressed than me!

He is sitting outside the door to the local supermarket, and put his leg out in front of me as I tried to enter and asked for money.

Less than 6 feet to his left is the door of a cafe, with a sign on it saying "waiter required - apply within". I know those cafe owners, and I am sure that if he had gone in there and asked for a trial shift, rather than settling down outside the supermarket, they would have taken him on for the day to see how he did. They have needed a new waiter for months.

I have every sympathy with homeless and rough sleepers, and people down on their luck. I just think this is a scammer though. He has arrived in the area looking for somewhere to beg, and will probably be going home tonight. He isn't a local man, as I said.

Nobody is saying that he isn't a lazy fecker without any reason to be in dire straits. He might be.

The material point is that the OP could not possibly have had any way of knowing, and neither could you.

Lazy feckless should absolutely go and get themselves a job. Mindless fuckwits who jump to unsubstantiated conclusions about complete strangers in the absence of any reliable evidence should go and get themselves a brain. And a heart.

Well putting it that way, it is no more believable than what the OP is saying. Anyway carry on, as you were.

I think now you've told him to go get a job he definitely will

😂😂

I can. Maybe he doesn’t want to work & just wants a play on peoples sympathies for a bit of extra money Just as likely as the alternative argument that he ‘could’ have MH issues or a hidden disability.

He ‘could’ just simply be someone that doesn’t want to contribute to society & pay their way. I’m not saying this is the case, but it does happen regularly so as much of a possibility.

Maybe he'd already tried that with no success. How do you know?

Yes, another one that has a different opinion to you and that’s ok! Everyone is entitled to that.

'He's not local' OP
'that sort of person' PP

I think the OP may be suggesting that he's not British. Adding to their Tory Boy issues.

He's probably just suffering like a lot of people

"and he was apparently more than capable of doing it."

Not everyone can be a waiter actually. I can't and I'm not disabled.

I spent 5 months sleeping on the streets when I was 16 (after overstaying my welcome at friends houses sofa surfing for the previous 2 years) and when I went to my local council for help the snotty woman at reception looked me up and down and told me that I obviously wasn’t homeless, I was far too clean. She told the other receptionists that I was lying whenever I went in after that.

I used to sleep in the woods then walk into town early every morning and get washed up in the baby change room, which had a plug socket so I could straighten my hair. I wheeled a huge suitcase everywhere that was filled with clothes, makeup and hair straighteners. I went to college and hung out with friends, nobody ever realised.

Not every homeless person has scraggly hair and stinky clothes.

You have no idea about his physical or mental health. Not all disabilities are visible. If you’re homeless it’s also not as easy as just walking in anywhere and getting a job. You generally can’t take a job if you don’t have a bank account for wages to be paid in, very few jobs are cash in hand. You can’t get a bank account easily without a fixed address.

You sound very judgemental when you have no idea about this man’s circumstances. Obviously he shouldn’t have physically tried to stop you but all of your other judgements are unreasonable.

Professional beggers don't tend to turn up looking well put together and well dressed. It's begging 101. Don't look so scruffy people are scared, but look scruffy enough to gain sympathy.

You should get a job with Atos, OP.

Try saying that out loud when you’ve got no teeth. What an idiot thing to say to someone’s face!

I don’t think you can tell whether or not someone has full mental or physical capacity from this kind of brief encounter, well…I know you can’t. But what made you think he is homeless, just the fact he was sitting on the floor?

So the lovely local cafe owners would jeopardize their business to give someone a cash in hand trial shift with no documentation. Also the man has absolutely no disabilities (mental or physical) and was well dressed and couldn't possibly be local or new to the area.

I see this on the train to Brighton, same couple every Thursday when I go to work in London. How they get away with it all day as they are often there in the evenings when I come home too.

@Maggie178 I literally cannot stop laughing at your comment 🤣

AIBU to tell a judgy busybody to get a life?

There is a steep increase in professional beggers into our tiny market town and nearby big town. They all go home at 6. A police inspector friend told us the Big Issue lady gets the train in from London daily, a good hours comute that coss over £37 a day in train fare. Unless your still out on street after the pub shuts I don't trust anyone is homeless anymore. Plus who carries cash after covid? I saw a genuine homeless man demand a lady give her the notes in her purse when she offered him change for food. So all in all I would no longer feel safe giving cash to anyone genuine or not. I had a completely adverage looking man run up to me asking for cash last year. Imagine jogging around town all day looking for people to ask for cash? I'd rather stay safe

no, he was 100% British, but not local to our area. I help run the local emergency shelter, and I know all the local beggars, mostly by name, and they know me too. We get new ones arrive, and we place older ones in training and accommodation, but this was a "day tripper". He has been picked up and driven away now.

Because I spoke to the cafe owners, then I spoke to him.

Less than 6 feet to his left is the door of a cafe, with a sign on it saying "waiter required - apply within".

It said "waiter" specifically, did it?

Your 'professional beggar' isn't very good if you saw straight through him is he?
Maybe take him some soot tomorrow to rub over his face?