She had always intended to quit sex work after graduating. “I wouldn’t have been able to survive without sex work,” she says. Sex work was the one job they could do from their beds. One survey of 'survival' sex work found women to be selling penetrative sex for as little as £10 for a place to stayThis use of sex work as a last option for marginalised women is not a new phenomenon, but as benefit cuts have been rolled out, austerity measures are exacerbating it. Women are more likely to be disabled – there are around 6.4 million disabled women in the UK compared to 5.5 million disabled men – and the Women’s Budget Group in 2018 found that almost six in 10 individuals claiming PIP are women.

Source: The Guardian June 05, 2019 04:52 UTC