Disabled entering adult work to get more cash

Vulnerable people’s finances are so bad at the minute that many are having to make money from sex work and prostitution to make ends meet.

Figures have shown that thousands of mentally vulnerable and physically disabled people who have been struggling since cuts to disability benefits were brought in, have been earning money through sex work such as prostitution and escorting. It has also become apparent that some students, who are also feeling the financial strain, are also getting in on the act (so to speak) and are similarly going down the prostitution route to bring in some extra cash. The numbers don’t lie, between 2011 and 2018, prostitutes working the streets has risen by 62 per cent.

It is no secret that many people who have mental and physical disabilities have had to endure large cuts to their benefits pay-outs under the current government; but no one could have truly predicted that things could get so bad that people were forced into selling their bodies for cash.

For people with mental and physical disabilities, there are big limitations on the jobs that they can do, so when their benefits are cut, it isn’t easy to just go out and find another job. Adult work, for many, is the only work that they can do that will pay what they need. 

Andrew Tring, who helps support women who work on the streets said : “I personally have seen more people get into this kind of work since all the cuts were brought in by this government. It worries me when I see women who are clearly not of sound mind offering their bodies for money. We should be helping these people, but instead all the cuts have meant that we are just exposing their vulnerability. I actually know of a woman who has a personality disorder and she works the streets. She should be getting help and treatment but the system is failing her. We do all we can but we haven’t got necessary funds either.”

As well as the disabled and students going into prostitution, statistics also show that there has been a near 20 per cent increase in ‘everyday people’ doing this kind of work on the side-line, alongside their nine to five jobs. Once people enter this industry they find it almost impossible to leave.