Sex for survival: due to rising prices, British women turn to prostitutes

More British women are turning to sex work for the first time, while others who have managed to quit prostitution have to return to questionable ‘business’ to pay their bills, social workers told Sky News.

How informs Sky News, the cost of living crisis is pushing more women into prostitution and preventing them from saying no to abusive and exploitative clients.

With record inflation and wages mismatched by rising prices and electricity bills, calls to the English Prostitute Collective have increased by a third this summer. Based in north London, with a national helpline and centers in several major cities, this network advises sex workers on how to stay safe and stay within the law where possible.

Spokeswoman Niki Adams, who has helped thousands of women in 30 years, says: “The cost of living crisis is currently pushing women into sex work in a variety of ways – whether on the street, indoors or online. Everywhere we see that people come to this job out of desperation. This means that they are far less able to protect themselves from violence and exploitation. And it also means that the conditions of sex work are deteriorating to the point where they put women’s lives at risk.”

One such woman Niki Adams works with in Preston is a single mother of four. Having lost hundreds of pounds in the transition from the old state system of benefits to universal credit, she was left without a job and unable to pay her bills. “She started spending a couple of nights a week outside — just long enough to pay every bill,” Adams says. She didn’t have the opportunity to work indoors, although it would have been much safer and she would have preferred to do so. Although she says money saves her life, she fears her abusive ex-partner will find out and use it against her in social services.”

Nikki McNeil is a Women’s Support Officer at Beyond The Streets, a Southampton and London-based charity that helps people find their way out of the sex industry across the UK.

She says she and her colleagues have also seen an increase in referrals from women selling “survival sex.”

“We call it that because it’s the only choice these women can make to survive. This is done to meet the basic needs of having enough money for food and rent,” McNeil told Sky News. She gave the example of another mother who shares custody of her children with her ex-partner: “She finally has a place to live, but she doesn’t have a refrigerator or money for one, so she hangs her bag out of the window to cool her food. And because of her past history of domestic violence and coercion, she now sells sex so she can have enough money for the kids.”

According to a study by National Ugly Mugs, it is 10 times safer for sex workers to work indoors than outdoors. But while selling sex indoors is legal in England and Wales, working with other people is considered a crime, and working for an agency comes with other risks as well.

According to Nicky Adams, the current crisis means that, in addition to those who turn to sex work for the first time, people who have managed to get out of prostitution are forced to return to this occupation. “They are being forced to return to this because they have either lost these so-called ‘permanent’ jobs during COVID or are not earning what they need to survive,” she said.

Adams supports a woman in her 40s from Bristol who worked as a freelance sex worker in people’s homes and hotels for nearly a decade before finding a job as a salesperson. But after losing that job due to the lockdown and not receiving support, she had to register with a sex agency.

“This time she works for an agency and was shocked by the conditions,” says Adams. – Some women are expected to have sex without protection. Clients know they are in a position where they can’t say no, which is why some agencies push women into that situation.”

Another way women do sex work to pay their bills is online through services like OnlyFans. Social workers warn that this could put women at risk of harassment and blackmail.

“We are currently working with a woman in her 20s from Kent,” says Niki Adams. She had a job in retail and moved out of her parents’ house, but when the crisis hit she couldn’t pay her bills. She created an OnlyFans account and worked for several months, starting to create a profile for herself, when she was attacked by a guy who began to harass her. The man managed to find her private page on the social network, and he began to pursue the woman. After he tracked down her family and told her younger sister about the nature of her job, the woman was forced to move.

Another woman’s man friend found her online ad and threatened to go with her to her children’s school. “I’ve heard of many women in this situation, and it’s a serious, growing problem,” Adams says.

The urgency of rising heating, electricity and food bills, as well as a lack of IT skills, means that some women have neither the time nor the opportunity to gain a foothold online. Nikki McNeil of Beyond The Streets says, “You have to come from a privileged place to be able to use Wi-Fi and sell sex online. The women we work with sell sex in a variety of contexts. Not all of them have access to Wi-Fi, but those who have sex and sell online still share experiences of violence.”

A government spokesman told Sky News it “recognizes that people are struggling with rising prices” and is offering £1,200 in direct payments to low-income households, as well as £400 to pay for energy to vulnerable people.

The government added: “We have no plans to change the law on prostitution and are committed to combating the harm and exploitation associated with sex work.”