An Army veteran has had his Jobseeker’s Allowance stopped after selling poppies in memory of fallen comrades.

Fusilier Stephen Taylor, 60, lost £71.20 a week after collecting for the Royal British Legion charity for a total of 24 hours in two weeks.

He told Bury Jobcentre staff in Greater Manchester about his volunteering and they stopped his £71.20-a-week payment saying he wasn’t actively seeking work.

He has missed four weeks’ pay and is now behind with rent. Stephen, who served in Cyprus, Kenya and Ulster in the 70s when a close comrade was shot and killed, said: “It’s all wrong.”