Cash-strapped students turn to sex industry
Source: Agencies |
December 15, 2011, Thursday
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DESPERATE British students, faced with rising costs on the back of government austerity measures, are turning to prostitution, gambling and other dangerous pursuits to fund their studies, support workers and student leaders said yesterday.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a welfare body for sex workers, said it estimated the number of people approaching it for help had doubled in the last year as students struggled to make ends meet.
"(The government) know the cuts and the austerity programs and the removing of grants, they know when they remove those resources they know it drives women further into poverty," said Sarah Walker from the ECP.
"The way that women survive poverty is often through sex work. The government knows that and they don't seem to care, frankly."
Young people have been the hardest hit by economic slowdown with youth unemployment now accounting for 1.03 million of the 2.64 unemployed, the highest level since 1992.
Last year, the government said it would scrap the Educational Maintenance Allowance, a grant to help older schoolchildren stay in education, and allow university tuition fees to treble to up to 9,000 pounds (US$14,000) a year from 2012.
With part-time jobs scarce and the cost of living being squeezed by rising prices, the National Union of Students (NUS) said young people were taking desperate and dangerous measures to pay for their education.
"In some cases that's sex work, but we're also hearing about clinical trials, gambling ... dangerous work," said Estelle Hart, the NUS's national women's officer.
"You often hear it's very easy to get a bar job. Well, it's not easy to get a bar job in this economic climate. It's not easy to get any job."
A study by researchers at a London university published last year found 16 percent of students were willing to engage in sex work to pay for their education.
Hart said a recent study by Leeds University in northern England revealed 25 percent of strippers and lap dancers were students.
The prostitutes' collective said women of all ages were affected and were working in brothels, as strippers, in lap dancing clubs, and on sex phone lines.
"It's right across the sex industry. With sex work, you can work for maybe one evening a week and make enough money to cover all your expenses," Walker said.
The government said it was providing 180 million pounds a year for the most vulnerable teenagers and that no student had to pay up front.
"Our reforms will make the system even fairer," said a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a welfare body for sex workers, said it estimated the number of people approaching it for help had doubled in the last year as students struggled to make ends meet.
"(The government) know the cuts and the austerity programs and the removing of grants, they know when they remove those resources they know it drives women further into poverty," said Sarah Walker from the ECP.
"The way that women survive poverty is often through sex work. The government knows that and they don't seem to care, frankly."
Young people have been the hardest hit by economic slowdown with youth unemployment now accounting for 1.03 million of the 2.64 unemployed, the highest level since 1992.
Last year, the government said it would scrap the Educational Maintenance Allowance, a grant to help older schoolchildren stay in education, and allow university tuition fees to treble to up to 9,000 pounds (US$14,000) a year from 2012.
With part-time jobs scarce and the cost of living being squeezed by rising prices, the National Union of Students (NUS) said young people were taking desperate and dangerous measures to pay for their education.
"In some cases that's sex work, but we're also hearing about clinical trials, gambling ... dangerous work," said Estelle Hart, the NUS's national women's officer.
"You often hear it's very easy to get a bar job. Well, it's not easy to get a bar job in this economic climate. It's not easy to get any job."
A study by researchers at a London university published last year found 16 percent of students were willing to engage in sex work to pay for their education.
Hart said a recent study by Leeds University in northern England revealed 25 percent of strippers and lap dancers were students.
The prostitutes' collective said women of all ages were affected and were working in brothels, as strippers, in lap dancing clubs, and on sex phone lines.
"It's right across the sex industry. With sex work, you can work for maybe one evening a week and make enough money to cover all your expenses," Walker said.
The government said it was providing 180 million pounds a year for the most vulnerable teenagers and that no student had to pay up front.
"Our reforms will make the system even fairer," said a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
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