Britain’s cost-of-living crisis is pushing more of its sex workers into taking potentially dangerous risks in order to make ends meet.
Rocketing UK inflation — which remains above 10 percent — has forced even more vulnerable Britons into such work to pay spiraling bills, advocates for the sector say.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), which campaigns to decriminalize prostitution, improve safety and help sex workers leave the profession if they want, is worried about the effects of the soaring cost of living.
Photo: AFP
Jack Parker, 24, who works as a male escort in London, said that he initially avoided clientele he had a “bad feeling” about.
That changed as the number of clients rapidly dwindled, forcing him to drum up more business.
“It used to be that if a client gave me any kind of bad feeling I wouldn’t book them,” Parker said.
“But I started to see people I did have bad feelings about just because I was ... not getting enough clients for me to be able to turn any down,” he said.
The cost-of-living squeeze, which worsened dramatically last year, has also prompted cash-strapped customers to book less.
“For them it’s ... a luxury thing that they’re cutting down on,” added Parker, who has slashed his hourly fee from £140 (U$174) to £110 as a result.
Paying for sex is legal in the UK, apart from in Northern Ireland, but many related activities such as soliciting, running a brothel, pimping and advertising sexual services are illegal.
The ECP says that this isolates vulnerable sex workers and forces them underground.
Rampant inflation has worsened the matter as workers become ever more desperate.
“Everyone’s feeling the cost-of-living crisis,” ECP spokesperson Bianca Blake said.
“There are often fewer clients — and if there are fewer clients, then you have to work more to try and make the same amount of money that you were making before,” she said.
Sex work is commonly used to refer to prostitution, but it can also be lap dancing, pornography, stripping or any other paid sexual services including telephone and Internet sex.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, demand has boomed for British-based Web site OnlyFans, which streams paid-for content from sex workers and other content creators.
Julia, a 21-year-old student from London who declined to give her real name, earns a living by posting erotic photos and videos on the site.
She recently agreed to show her face to some clients, something she had previously avoided to ensure anonymity.
“Even though I knew it wasn’t a good idea, it was either that or pay rent late again,” she said.
“I only take pictures where you can’t see my face, from behind, or with a mask,” she said.
She now lives in fear of “doxxing,” or online exposure of her true identity without consent, which could damage her studies and career.
The ECP last year launched a Hookers Against Hardship campaign to urge government action to prevent people sliding into prostitution as a result of debt, homelessness and poverty.
Sex worker Audrey C, who has created an online petition calling for the decriminalization of prostitution, said she feels compelled to accept all clients simply to survive.
“I’m personally feeling the pressure to see clients I would normally refuse, or to provide services that I usually would not, just to be able to eat and keep a roof over my head,” she wrote in the petition.
“One of the main challenges I face as a sex worker is the potential risk of violence — not because sex work is inherently dangerous, but as a direct consequence of it being both criminalized and heavily stigmatized,” she said.
Parker, who chronicles his working life on Twitter, uses a mobile phone app through which UK sex workers can file reports on abusive customers.
However, he said that he has still suffered violent abuse because he was simply desperate to make ends meet.
“I have been assaulted ... [with] clients grabbing me or starting to choke me, and me pushing them off and telling them not to do that,” he said.
“That kind of thing ... happened a lot more because I was taking clients who were risky, who did have reports on them, because I just needed the money,” he said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his