Some of them earn £100 — and then go home to take a hot shower.
Ed thought that no one in their right mind would decide to spend nights in the freezing cold, but in reality many homeless people preferred to streets to temporary shelters. One of the beggars could earn £20 in about 20 minutes by saying that he needed this money to pay for his shelter but then he would turn around and spend it all on drugs.
And to his surprise, Ed wasn’t the only fake beggar. Some had homes of their own, but they still worked on streets to make easy money. They begged for money for a living, and then spent it all on drugs and alcohol. One of these fake beggars, Darren, said that he could earn up to £600 per night by asking for money from drunk pub-goers. But usually he went home to have dinner and take a hot shower after he had collected £100.
Another fake beggar received an apartment from the government after he had been released from prison. He was going to get a proper job in the beginning. But his potential employers offered him £8 an hour, which he found unacceptable. So, he chose an easier way to earn money for a living.
According to Ed, even the real homeless people didn’t really need the money as much as they needed the psychological support to be able to adapt socially. He also said that despite the fact that he found some good friends on the streets of London, he would never give handouts to either the real beggars or the fake ones.