Bianca sells The Big Issue, a magazine aimed at helping to assist homeless and people living in poverty, outside the train station in Blackheath, south-east London. She is 22 and with her husband buys 100 copies a week from the publisher at half the £2.50 cover price to resell. What they make helps to cover expenses and buy food for their large family, comprising their two children, Bianca’s parents and her younger siblings.
There is rarely much money left so Bianca does not use the bank account she opened some time ago. “It’s a bank in Woolwich, I can’t remember the name. I had to go with my father [the first time], it was too scary,” she says, shaking her hands, finding the question of whether she had found it an easy process almost humorous.
