Poverty
Prostitution is increasing because of austerity. A 60% increase in street prostitution recorded in Doncaster is primarily attributed to destitution caused by benefit sanctions,.with charities saying: “Women are being forced to sell sex for £5 because of benefit sanctions.” Sheffield reports a 166% increase (2014) while charity workers in Hull report: “ . . . women who are literally starving and they are out there to feed themselves.”
Update on the campaign that defeated a banning order in Newham
In December 2022 Newham Council issued a consultation on its proposal to bring in a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) in the Romford Road.The justification for the PSPO was that sex workers were:“. . . offering sexual services to passersby, engaging in sexual activities in public spaces” and that clients were kerb-crawling and that this […]
Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) inquiry – Impact of the rising cost of living on women (2023)
The Women and Equalities Parliamentary Committee launched an inquiry into the impact of the rising cost of living on women. The ECP submission reports on the increase in women in crisis coming to us for information about starting work and going back into sex work – some who have left many years ago. Most are […]
Independent: Sex workers at risk of homelessness as ‘banks freeze their accounts’
‘I have not slept well. I have had to borrow money from a client – how else am I going to pay my bills?’ sex worker saysMaya Oppenheim Women’s CorrespondentSex workers are at risk of homelessness and destitution because their bank accounts are being frozen due to their work, the Sex Worker’s Union has warned.Campaigners said the freezing of bank […]
Event: End Women’s Poverty – A Guaranteed Care Income for All Caregivers of People & Planet, 9-11 June
Dear friends, Please register for this international and community gathering! ECP’s Niki Adams will be speaking at the session on Saturday 10 June 1:30-4:30pm (EDT) ‘End the Criminalization of Poverty and Protest’ All events are on Zoom as well as in personFor latest updates and speakers see the Global Women’s Strike website.
Action Alert: Tenants’ rights – NOT “sex for rent” laws!
The government is considering creating a new law to explicitly outlaw so-called “sex for rent” and has issued a “call for evidence”. The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2023. Please click here to fill in the online questionnaire —- The ECP opposes legislation to outlaw “sex for rent” because: If a landlord harasses, threatens […]
AFP: UK sex workers take more risks due to cost-of-living crunch
Emeline BURCKEL 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 spiralling bills, advocates for the sector say.The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), which […]
Cosmopolitan: The Holbeck experiment – the city that tried to make sex work safer
As more people turn to sex work amid a cost-of-living crisis, what can we do to help – and protect – them? Jennifer Savin heads to the place that thought it had a solutionBY JENNIFER SAVIN It could be any neighbourhood, anywhere. Kids whizz past blocks of flats and new-builds on scooters. Teenagers vape in the underpass […]
Metro: ‘We have to offer more for less, because we don’t have any other options’
By Lauren Crosby Medlicott, JournalistAfter a long working day at a London-based office job in the charity sector, there’s nothing Alex* would love more than to go out with friends or sit and binge on boxsets. Instead, Alex opens their ‘sex work’ phone en route to the gym and quickly replies to messages from clients who they’ll be seeing […]
Metro: Sex workers in the UK struggling since the pandemic say ‘I’d stop if I could’
Tanyel MustafaIt recently hit headlines that certain MPs were using sex workers abroad while on parliamentary trips.Other reports include police officers using robbed money on sex workers, and detectives arresting sex workers, only to have sex with them at the police station.While this activity happens, sex workers in the UK are being dealt an increasingly rough hand.Earlier this year, […]