DWP urged to act on ‘alarming’ evidence women are turning to ‘survival sex’ to bridge universal credit gap

DWP’s initial response that ‘perhaps there are other jobs on offer’ condemned as ‘wholly inadequate’ by MPs

Ministers are being urged to take action after it emerged benefit claimants were turning to sex work as a means to survive due to the rollout of universal credit (UC).

A number of women told the Work and Pensions Committee earlier this year that they had been forced to turn to sex work to meet their basic survival needs, including money, food, shelter or even laundry.

When the issue was first raised in the House of Commons last October, the then-work and pensions secretary, Esther McVey, responded by saying that “these ladies” might be told that there were “record” numbers of job vacancies in the UK and “perhaps there are other jobs on offer”.

The committee said this response was “wholly inadequate” and suggested that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had “little understanding or insight” into the issue, leading MPs to launch a full inquiry.

They said the evidence they received was “alarming and distressing”. In one case, a woman told MPs the manager of a shop had said he would let her off shoplifting if she performed oral sex on him.

“What could I do?” the woman said. “It was that or have the police called. I just did it. I just kept thinking, ‘Please don’t call the police’.

“Anyway, he said afterwards that if I did the same next week he’d let me have forty quid’s worth of stock. It seemed like a fortune.

“In the end, I held out for two weeks. I got my [UC] money, and again it was short, and again it was gone on bills before I’d even thought of food. So, I left the baby with next door and went down to the shop. It’s been like that for months now.”

In another case, a woman told the committee: “I am about to be moved on to universal credit. I will lose £200 a month, approximately. The thought of going into debt and having no money is really frightening. I have children. I can’t do that. I will sell my body.”

MPs said the findings highlighted “once again” the “deep, structural and administrative” problems with universal credit, including the five-week wait for a first payment, which has been widely condemned by charities for leaving people without support for weeks.

The committee said the DWP’s first attempt at a written response was “defensive, dismissive and trite” and largely ignored these personal, frontline testimonies, instead presenting what appeared to be its own internet research on whether there is a “direct causal link” between universal credit and survival sex.

Will Quince, minister for family support, housing and child maintenance, later apologised for this after hearing testimony from victims, and submitted a revised response conceding that there was a link, though not an “over-simplistic” one.

Frank Field MP, chair of the committee, welcomed the U-turn but said “that cannot be the end of it” and that the DWP, “having belatedly acknowledged that there is a problem, must take the steps to resolve it”.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We take all evidence presented to the committee very seriously and are extremely concerned to hear of these experiences. We are determined to ensure that no one finds themselves in this position and are committed to providing a safety net for the most vulnerable in society.

“Improvements have been made to universal credit such as extending advances, removing waiting days, and introducing housing benefit run on, and we are carefully considering the report’s recommendations.”