$50,000 A Year By Begging lol

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"THE hours are long and the work monotonous, but begging pays well for at least one of Sydney's homeless men who earns up to $50,000 a year from good samaritans.

Ken Johnson, 52, makes his living at George and Market St, outside the Myer store in Sydney's CBD, where he sits for up to 16 hours daily, seven days a week.

On a good day, he said, he takes in $400 from generous passers-by.

On slower days, he still picks up amounts between $75 and $150.

"I'd be really disappointed if I did a long Friday and I only had $250,'' said Mr Johnson, who has been living on the streets ``since the late '90s''.

"I knock off when I feel like it, or if I've done brilliantly. But on those good days, you might be on such a high that you go for a few more hours and get a bit more money.''

Mr Johnson wouldn't say how much he earned last year. But he did reveal that donated coins and notes are stashed in a safe place, before being taken to a bank branch and deposited in his account several times a week. Some of the money is given to a friend.

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Asked what he used the money for, he told The Sunday Telegraph he did not smoke, drink nor take drugs, but was raising money to help the friend who needs a liver transplant.

Mr Johnson displays a sign that reads: ``Needing support for major family exp(enses) including just heaps for medicine. Paying up is a big grind. Please leave me alone, if you are the abusive nasty sort.''

When The Sunday Telegraph caught up with him last Wednesday, business had been good. In 20 minutes, he collected $30 in coins and notes. One woman handed him $10.

"I've had three hours off today,'' he said, after treating himself to a breakfast from Hungry Jack's.

"I got a $20 note earlier, so I'm sitting on about $60 for the day and the afternoon rush is still to come.

"There's a general rule in donating and that is that people are more likely to help out when they are towards the end of their day, when they're happy and heading home.''

His tax-free income might sound fine but, unlike most jobs, there's no sick leave nor superannuation plan.
He does not draw welfare because ``it makes you feel like a cripple''.

Mr Johnson said he could not afford to rent and lived on the streets because the money had been spent to pay for bills for his friend.

"Most hostels don't have space to store things and to rent a small unit just costs too much when you're at stress point,'' he said.

Originally from Newcastle, he said he came to Sydney ``in the 1990s'' to fight a court battle against the RTA, seeking to have part of the Pacific Highway at Swansea deemed illegal.

"Inner-city accommodation was, and still is, just off the face of the earth _ it's just too expensive,'' he said. ``I was unemployed at the time, so decided to sleep on some concrete steps while I was in Sydney and I just got used to it.''

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from the 2006 Census show 27,374 homeless people in NSW.
An Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) spokeswoman said ``rough sleepers'' represented about 16 per cent of the homeless.

She said many turned to begging because government welfare did not cover costs, and ``for those who do receive income support, payments may be inadequate to meet the costs of temporary accommodation and food.

The Newstart unemployment payment is about $32 a day.

"Of those who do sleep on the street, only a tiny minority choose to do so, as a lifestyle choice. For most people who are homeless, there is no choice.''

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/s ... 5765125138

[Murax]

""I knock off when I feel like it, or if I've done brilliantly. But on those good days, you might be on such a high that you go for a few more hours and get a bit more money.''

[IRONm@N]

But he did reveal that donated coins and notes are stashed in a safe place, before being taken to a bank branch and deposited in his account several times a week. Some of the money is given to a friend.

deposited to bank account? what kind shyt is this? this is robbery!

[kambuli]

If indeed he is doing for his friend's liver transplant..Kudos to him..But if not to him...

[Skippa]

There was gypsy woman known as "the shaky lady" in toronto that got exposed a few years ago. Here's her wikipedia page

Margita Bangová (c. 1936), also known as Margita Horváthová, is a notorious Toronto-based panhandler and alleged con artist.

Bangová, a Gypsy from Czechoslovakia, entered Canada as a refugee in 1997. She received social assistance from the government which she supplemented by panhandling.
She became a widely recognized fixture in Toronto on Bloor Street between Yonge and Bay where she would beg behind a hand-lettered cardboard sign reading, "PLEASE HELP I AM VERY SICK I WILL PRAY FOR YOU THANK YOU". With her shabby clothing, cane, and apparently uncontrollable full-body trembling, she became known as the "Shaky Lady" and was regarded as a wretched object of pity.
Local residents and police became suspicious of Bangova when they noticed that she would stop shaking completely at the end of the day and spryly walk away with her earnings. In March 2002, local journalists Mike Strobel and Alex Urosevic began secretly observing Bangova. In a series of articles in the Toronto Sun, they claimed that she typically employs two burly bodyguards to watch over her while she shakes and begs for a five-hour shift. She then suddenly gets up and, without a hint of the uncontrollable trembling she uses to elicit handouts, swiftly walks around the block to a waiting car. She is then driven to her east-end apartment which has leather furniture, a big-screen television, and a computer. Based on their observations, Strobel and Urosevic estimate Bangova pulls in $2500 per week from her panhandling.
Strobel later discovered a Czech television documentary on Gypsies who had emigrated to Canada. Bangova is featured prominently in the show, appearing healthy and wearing "classy" clothing. When she is interviewed she claims to be very happy and well-fed and urges other Gypsies to emigrate to Canada.
After the publication of Strobel's first article, he and photographer Ernest Doroszuk travelled to Bangova's apartment to request an interview. Strobel claims they were invited into the apartment but were soon recognized and beaten by Bangova and her husband.
One week after the Sun printed the stories, Bangova retained the services of lawyer Leonard Hochberg and held a press conference. Hochberg, speaking of behalf of Bangova, insisted that his client trembles because of a medical condition and panhandles to supplement her disability pension of $900 per month. He claimed that Bangova's income from begging is usually no more than $40 to $50 per day.
Bangova has found it difficult to continue panhandling in Toronto since her media coverage there. She has since taken to travelling to nearby cities to beg, being spotted in Niagara Falls, Orillia, Ottawa, Hamilton, Detroit, and Montreal.
The exposé of Bangova was quick to draw criticism from the public and from other journalists. Many were unhappy with Strobel's treatment of Bangova, claiming that she was serving as a convenient scapegoat and deflecting attention from the real causes of poverty. Toronto's legitimate homeless panhandlers reported a significant decline in donations and handouts and blamed Bangova and/or Strobel's articles for inciting public distrust of beggars.
Other Toronto residents, especially those who had personally given money to Bangova or seen her apparently healthy and physically active during her off hours, expressed appreciation for the media coverage. Some people said that the articles proved how difficult it was to distinguish con artists from people with legitimate problems, and urged others to donate to homeless shelters and other recognized charities instead of giving money directly to panhandlers.
Bangova has never been formally charged with criminal misconduct for her begging tactics because panhandling is not a crime in Toronto. Instead, police officers occasionally warn residents and tourists not to give money to Bangova.
In July 2002, Bangova was recognized by local resident Doreen Willcocks, who tried to dissuade a man about to give her $50. Bangova responded by attacking Willcocks with her cane; she was subsequently charged with and found guilty of assault.