No. We should give our lose change to charities which support the homeless, help them find jobes and give them a place to stay. Giving money to the homeless is like trying to treat the symptom of a disease when in actual fact you need to tackle the cause.

When you give the money to an organised charity you know that the money will be spent wisely. Yes, street fund raisers get paid, but that is money well spent if they get even a small number of people signing up to a direct debit scheme. So the £10 you give could be invested into these fundraisers and your money will help sign up 3 direct debits from people who could make monthly payments from £5 to £20. So your donation could be tripled in effect.

In addition to this, when you give money directly to beggars, you have no idea as to what they will spend that money on. You have no idea whether they really are homeless. An organised charity eliminates all these doubts. They will spend the money on shelters and food, not alcohol and cigarettes. They will ensure that they money is distributed amongst the most needy.

All this taken into account, giving to an organisation instead of one beggar is far more helpful.

That's right you can give your money to organizations and they can use the money wisely for you instead of drugs and other things.

Everybody who’s homeless is homeless for a reason, but is simply not accurate to say most have spent all their money on drugs and alcohol – and if that is true for some people it’s not true to say they still continue to take drugs now.

Many people, women especially, are on the streets because of sexual abuse. Many men are ex-servicemen who can’t cope with civilian life. Many people who used to use drugs are now clean but can’t get a job because they have no CV (and of course are homeless).

So the vicious circle exists and can be increased. Though it’s more likely to be increased if you don’t give than do.

To beg is extremely demeaning, not to mention freezing! People must be in extreme poverty in order to resort to such measures. Yes, there are concerns about whether they are really poor, but if a person resorts to such methods to gain a bit of money each day, surely they are need in help, just as much, if not more than those who have no choice but to be on the streets?

Yes because if you do instead of feeling guilty you feel incouraging and happy.