I'm currently living in Rome and it's pretty much the same here. If you sit outside having a coffee in certain areas people will come by asking for change - you

I'm currently living in Rome and it's pretty much the same here. If you sit outside having a coffee in certain areas people will come by asking for change - you usually see the same people everyday. In the tourist areas you will be approached a million times to buy selfie sticks or other junk by street vendors. I regularly see people rummaging through rubbish bins to see what they can salvage, and if someone dumps an appliance on the street (this is how they "recycle" here in Italy) things like the motor and cables will be gone in a few hours. The scary thing is a lot of people you see are young people - they've clearly just been failed by the system. I'm from the UK and lived in London a few years ago ('09 - '11) and I remember seeing a few people begging but they were usually drunkards. I don't remember so many young people, or getting approached to give money as much as here. I wonder how the UK does things differently to Germany and Italy?