Growing number of disabled people turning to sex work amid benefit cuts and rising living costs

Sofia (name changed) had been working, earning “terrible” pay in the social care sector for six years when finances became unmanageable in the autumn of 2024.

“Previously, I had been able to earn enough money to pay for necessities by picking up overtime shifts,” the 28-year-old Londoner told Big Issue. “But over the last few years, things have progressively gotten more expensive – my rent has gone up by £300 and bill and food cost more – but my wages haven’t risen.”

By the end of 2024, she knew she’d either have to take on a second job or rely on a credit card to cover her expenses.

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She was nervous to take on a second job because of how it would impact her social care career.

“I’d be working insane hours each week, and the last thing I’d want to do is go into the care home I work absolutely knackered,” she said.

Instead, she took the option of relying on credit.

“It’s a vicious cycle because you can never pay it back,” she said, describing how every month she was getting in deeper debt to pay off the credit card interest payments.

Having previously read about women who started doing sex work when money became desperate, Sofia looked into sex work as an option for herself when she had only £25 in her bank account.

“I was at the supermarket trying to figure out what I could buy for the month with £25,” she said. “And then I got in my car, which had an empty tank, something that happened often. I just hoped it would get me home. I was constantly stressed about money.”

Constantly stressed, she signed herself up to a sex work website.

“Since then, I’ve been doing full-service work alongside my other job,” she said. “I just fit it in where I can – on weekends or evenings. When I work is within my control.”

New research from Decrim Now has found that the root causes why most people make the choice to enter sex work are poverty, an inaccessible traditional job market, and the current cost of living surpassing existing wages.

“Right now, the majority of people are struggling to survive the impact of successive recessions, austerity measures, a rapidly inflating cost of living and stark cuts to disability benefits and welfare,” Audrey Whorne, an organiser of Decrim Now and sex worker told Big Issue. “Our wages haven’t risen, but our bills, our rent and the cost of everything else has, leaving more people unable to make ends meet – even when in full time work.”

Their survey of 172 sex workers found that 76% of sex workers started in the industry due to financial need, with 77% identifying as disabled or living with a long-term health condition. More than half were working multiple jobs alongside sex work, and just over a quarter had caring responsibilities for children or other family members.

“Sex workers we surveyed told us that they chose to enter sex work because it was the best option for them or because there were no other options that afforded them financial security, while fitting around their current conditions,” Whorne said. “With very few barriers to entry, and the ability to fit flexibly around other responsibilities, sex work is being increasingly turned to as a way to fill in the gaps that are left by terrible wages, unaffordable childcare costs, or cuts to disability benefits – especially when many part-time jobs only offer long shifts, precarious zero hours contracts and minimum wage.”

‘I entered sex work because rent is extortionate and everything is expensive’

Off the back of the research, a coalition of sex worker-led organisations, disability charities, human rights organisations and trade unions are calling on the government to take urgent action to prevent growing numbers of women being pushed into sex work as a direct result of poverty, financial hardship, and an inadequate welfare system.

Tanya (name changed) started considering sex work three years ago when she was struggling with the long hours and workplace culture in her public sector job.

“I’m autistic, I have ADHD and PTSD, and I also have a chronic form of leukaemia,” Tanya told Big Issue. “I cope really badly with the pressure of a regular job, having to be present for certain hours of the day. I get tired, I can’t focus. I’ve also been harassed in the workplace and that is part of my trauma, so I’m always being re-triggered having to carry on in employment.”

But the final straw that suddenly made it a matter of urgency was when Tanya had a review of her personal independence payment (PIP) benefit in 2023.

“Even though my disabilities were now worse, they took away my PIP,” Tanya said. “Without that I didn’t have nearly enough to cover my rent and bills.”

Since making the decision to work in the sex industry, Tanya has been able to set her own hours and doesn’t have to deal with a traumatising workplace. She’s also able to “stay afloat” financially.

“In a perfect world I’d rather not have to work at all, but so long as I have to earn money to survive, I can’t think of any type of work I’d be more comfortable with,” she said.

Sofia has been able to pay off her credit card debt and not living in a constantly anxious state as a result of sex work.

“I’m not one bill away from a breakdown,” she said.

While Sofia might not be stressed about money anymore, she is worried about both her physical safety and possible interaction with the police.

“I’m terrified that police will turn up at my door telling me they found out I’ve been doing this,” she said. “I try to work with other people for safety, but when you do that, there is a constant fear of arrest.”

The stigma around sex work leaves Sofia worried her landlord may kick her out and that her bank account will be closed down if anyone finds out what she does for work

“I don’t tell any of my friends or family about my work,” she said, explaining she’s afraid of being judged and/or reported.

Before she made friends with other sex workers, there was no one to check in with before and after seeing a client.

“There was no safety blanket,” she said.

Tanya faces similar fears and worries: “Sex work itself shouldn’t be dangerous, but the laws and stigma around it make it dangerous. If a friend and I decided to work together in a shared flat so that we can look out for each other, that flat would be classed as a brothel and would be against the law. Banks get suspicious if you deposit a lot of cash and some banks even shut down sex workers’ accounts.”

In England, Scotland and Wales, sex work is currently partially criminalised.

“While selling sex from one person to another is technically legal, many of the acts included within or surrounding that transaction are criminalised,” explained Decrim Now’s Audrey Whorne.

Whorne goes on to say sex workers are criminalised when they work together for safety, hire security guards or drivers, and work the streets.

“They are often handed fines which they need to continue sex working to pay off – trapping them in a cycle of sex work and the risk of arrest,” Whorne said. “Due to the laws surrounding sex work, many sex workers have been forced out of rental agreements into homelessness, had their bank accounts closed, and been laughed out of police stations when they do turn to the police to report instances of violence.”

According to Whorne, there has been a “concerted effort” from some politicians, particular in the Labour Party, to implement the Nordic Model, which criminalises the person who purchases sex, as a means to prevent more people entering sex work.

“However, in every country the Nordic Model has been implemented in, it has failed to prevent people from, nor decrease the amount of people, entering sex work,” Whorne said. “This is because the Nordic Model fundamentally fails to understand why people enter sex work, people don’t start sex work due to demand but because of poverty. The only thing the Nordic Model is evidenced to be successful in is putting sex workers at greater risk of arrest, poverty, violence and death.”

With murmurings from Labour that they may adopt elements of the Nordic Model, Sofia feels a “low grade fear” she might be put in even further danger.

Friends who are sex workers in Ireland, where the Nordic Model has been adopted, have told Sofia about police assaults on sex workers, leading sex workers to work in more isolated, remote areas where they are at greater risk of violence from clients.

“Even recently, I was working with my friend in a flat when a client got aggressive towards us,” she recalled. “My friend said she’d call the police. The client turned to us and said he knew we couldn’t call the police, because if we did, we’d be the ones getting arrested.”

If the government wants to end sex work, criminalising the client isn’t the answer, Sofia said.

“It won’t end demand,” she continued. “And I’m still going to need the money because I don’t get paid enough, my rent is extortionate, and everything is expensive. The only reason I made the choice to do sex work was because of structural and societal issues – wages haven’t risen with inflation, and no rental caps have been set.”

If nothing is done to address the root causes of why people enter sex work, Whorne said: “We will inevitably see more people continue to enter sex work, a criminalised form of work, and encounter the dangerous conditions created by the current laws.”

If her social care job she loves and finds fulfilment in paid enough to cover the rising cost of living, Sofia wouldn’t choose sex work. But to feed herself and keep a roof over her head without going into debt, it’s her only option.

“If we had rental caps and higher rates of pay, I don’t think a lot of people who made the choice to enter sex work would have,” she said.

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