Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Decrim Now

Lauren Crosby Medlicott @laurenmedlicott.bsky.social · 1d

A survey of 172 sex workers found that 76% of sex workers started in the industry due to financial need, with 77% identifying as disabled or living with a long-term health condition. Here is what two women told me of their experiences.

@decrimnow.bsky.social

www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Growing number of disabled people turning to sex work amid rising living costs

The rising cost of living, cuts to benefits and welfare and poorly paid jobs have left some women and disabled people turning to sex work.

www.bigissue.com

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · 7d

If you live in Scotland, please use Scotland for Decrim’s template tool to email your MSP and ask them to stand up for sex workers: scotlandfordecrim.netlify.app

Scotland for Decrim

Demand full decriminalisation - write to your MSP now

scotlandfordecrim.netlify.app

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · 7d

We are horrified but not surprised by this. No one connected to the Magdalene laundries should be involved in making law on any subject, let alone trying to push laws which endanger women who are doing sex work. Sex workers say no to the Nordic Model.

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 8d

EXCLUSIVE: Ash Regan 'owes the Scottish public an explanation', campaigners have said, after it emerged a Holyrood group supporting her bill to outlaw buying sex is backed by an organisation that ran Magdalene laundries

Read here: tinyurl.com/ynept4fb

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Reposted by Decrim Now

Sex Workers Alliance Ireland @swaiireland.bsky.social · 8d

We are so delighted to see Catherine Connolly elected! She has consistently advocated for the health and safety of sex workers in Ireland during her time in the Dáil. While we will miss her as a TD, we know she will be a president for all on the island, especially the most marginalised.

10th President of Ireland
Catherine Connolly

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Reposted by Decrim Now

Sex Workers Alliance Ireland @swaiireland.bsky.social · 15d

Launching the bill yesterday at the Red Umbrella Film Festival, Ruth Coppinger said “Reducing demand was a key aim of the 2017 Sexual Offences Act — this incontrovertibly has not worked, as the Minister for Justice himself admitted after the review of the legislation was published.

Press release: Decriminalisation of sex work bill launched by TD Ruth Coppinger

The bill was co-created by Red Umbrella Éireann, the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland and the Street Workers Collective. These organisations are made up of sex workers and activists who are drawing on…

sexworkersallianceireland.org

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · 9d

Amazing work by our friends in Ireland to write and launch a bill to decriminalise sex work, which would enable sex workers to work together for safety, and improve their health and access to workers’ rights.

Sex Workers Alliance Ireland @swaiireland.bsky.social · 15d

Press release: Decriminalisation of sex work bill launched by TD Ruth Coppinger

The bill was co-created by Red Umbrella Éireann, the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland and the Street Workers Collective.

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 17

If you believe there should be no more cuts, no more austerity, no more poverty, take action now.

📧 Follow the link in our bio to use our template email to contact your MP.

💻 Sign up to our newsletter on our website & keep up to date with the situation for sex workers' rights in the UK.

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 17

We think the government can and must do more to prevent people from having to go into sex work if they would rather not. The government’s Autumn Budget is coming up, and we want the government to take real action to reduce poverty and financial need across the country.

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 17

You can read our open letter and see the rest of signatories, including the trade unions @aslefunion.bsky.social, @bfawu.bsky.social, and organisations like @disrightsuk.bsky.social, and @migrantsrights.bsky.social, in the images below.

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our open letter:
Dear Secretary of State,
We are writing to you as a group of sex workers' rights and wider civil society organisations, to ask you to take urgent action to prevent increasing numbers of women being driven into sex work by poverty and financial need.
Women and children disproportionately bear the brunt of the current poverty crisis, faced with a huge rise in living costs, low wages, and over a decade of harsh benefit cuts. Unacceptably, in 2025, 18% of UK children now live in households experiencing food poverty. The Government's upcoming Child Poverty Strategy presents a huge opportunity to tackle this staggeringly high level of child poverty, but the evidence must not be ignored: to lift children out of poverty, we must also lift women out of poverty.
At this time, UK sex worker charities and advocacy groups are witnessing increasing numbers of women entering the industry for the first time out of financial necessity. There are a range of different reasons why people go into sex work to support themselves. However, Decrim Now's recent survey of 172 sex workers paints a bleak picture, finding that
76% started sex work due to financial need. 77% of respondents considered themselves to be disabled or to have a long-term health condition, and many sex workers highlighted their health or disability as a key reason why they went into sex work.

Our survey additionally found that 53% of respondents were working multiple jobs outside of sex work, and 27% had caring responsibilities, predominantly for children or a family member.
Alarmingly, we are seeing more students enter the industry, as well as older women who are increasingly entering or re-entering the industry later in life due to financial pressures. We know that many migrant women go into sex work to support themselves because they have limited or no access to public funds, even when destitute. Women are also more likely to be trapped in abusive relationships if they cannot afford to leave, and some women use sex work to enable themselves to escape abuse.
Social security is the cornerstone of our human rights, such as housing, food and health. Clearly our social security system must be reformed to ensure people have the financial support they need to afford the essentials, without having to rely on sex work if they don't want to.
While people of any gender (and no gender) can and do go into sex work, the majority of sex workers are women and many are mothers. Due to current laws, these women, driven by poverty, are then forced to work in unsafe conditions, facing violence, stigma and discrimination. This must end.
The laws around sex work can be contentious, and the undersigned may differ in our views about which legislative models lead to the greatest safety for women.

Despite this, we are united in our concern about women's poverty, and the wellbeing of those who feel they have no choice but to enter sex work in order to survive.
The Government has promised to reduce child poverty by the end of this parliament. In order to achieve this moral imperative and prevent more women entering sex work due to poverty, we urge you to use your Autumn Budget to implement the following changes:
• Increase Universal Credit to a level that meets people's essential needs
• Scrap the no recourse to public funds condition
• Scrap the two child limit on benefits
• Lift the benefit cap
• Stop cuts to disability and health benefits.
We know that there is enough money in the Uk to fund these changes - the Government simply has to make the political decisions required to find it, such as by exploring the options for better taxing and redistributing wealth. As more women find themselves without the money to pay their rent or to feed their children, we can't afford not to make these changes.
As one sex worker responded to our survey's final question, which asked what they would like to tell the Government about their experiences: "People do sex work because they need money. If you want to live in a society where women aren't reliant on selling sex, it's poverty we need to tackle."

signatories:
DECRIM NOW
ENGLISH COLLECTIVE OF PROSTITUTES
SAFETY FIRST WALES
SEX WORKERS UNION
UCU
SEX WORKER ADVOCACY AND RESISTANCE MOVEMENT (SWARM)
NATIONAL UGLY MUGS
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK
AGENDA ALLIANCE
ARTS & HOMELESSNESS INTERNATIONAL
ASLEF
BFAWU
EQUITY
DISABILITY RIGHTS UK
LEVEL UP
THE ADULT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION PARTNERSHIP
HALALEH TAHERI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN AND SOCIETY (MEWSO)
LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN'S AID
MIGRANTS' RIGHTS NETWORK
ROSE BERNSTEIN, INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JOINT COUNCIL FOR THE WELFARE OF IMMIGRANTS
WOMEN AGAINST RAPE
RESTORED
ONE25
DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS
DIFFERENCE NORTH EAST
SPECTRA
BRISTOL SEX WORKERS COLLECTIVE
WINVISIBLE (WOMEN WITH VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE DISABILITIES)

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 17

We’ve been joined by orgs including @amnestyuk.bsky.social, @agenda-alliance.bsky.social, and @ucu.org.uk. We’re proud to be leading this coalition of organisations working across the sex workers’ rights movement, the women’s sector, the disability sector, the trade union movement, & others.

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A white background with orange faded patterns, with text overlaid saying, “Our letter has been signed by
a coalition of sex worker collectives, charities and trade unions to tell the government
they need to take action now.
Read our open letter on the next slide.
Help us by sharing this post and emailing your MP to ask them to support sex workers.”

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 17

The UK is in an ongoing poverty crisis, and some people are entering sex work in order to support themselves and their families. Women, mothers, migrants, disabled people and trans people are overrepresented in sex work because of the poverty they often face.

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A black background with orange faded patterns. The text over the top says: “76% of sex workers who responded to a recent Decrim Now survey said that their main reason for going into sex work was financial need.”

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 17

We’ve sent an open letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to tell him that the the government must act urgently to prevent increasing numbers of women being driven into sex work by poverty and financial need.

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A black and white photo of a person holding a sign that says, “benefit cuts drive women into prostitution,” on a bright red background. There is text overlaid that says, “OPEN LETTER: We've written to the government to tell them they must act urgently to prevent increasing
numbers of women being driven into sex work by poverty and financial need.”

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Reposted by Decrim Now

Spectra @spectra-london.org.uk · Sep 15

📢 We have signed an open letter, led by @decrimnow.bsky.social , calling on the UK Government to act on the poverty crisis driving more people, especially women, into s@x work.

Read more:

https://spectra-london.org.uk/2025/09/15/women-in-poverty-sx-work-spectra-open-letter/

A protester in a mask holds a sign reading "Benefit cuts drive women into prostitution." Text below urges government action to prevent women being forced into sex work due to poverty.

Red background with white text stating, "76% of sex workers who responded to a recent survey by Decrim Now said that financial need was the main reason they entered sex work."

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 12

Thank you Maggie for being such an amazing and consistent ally to sex workers! We hugely appreciated the opportunity to come and speak in Scottish Parliament alongside our friends from Scotland for Decrim, National Ugly Mugs and the Street Workers’ Collective Ireland.

Maggie Chapman MSP (she/her) @maggiechapman.bsky.social · Sep 12

Sex workers are experts on their own safety.

Ash Regan's Prostitution Bill claims to protect them, while completely ignoring their voices.

But Scotland For Decrim are advocating for the marginalised. I was honoured to sponsor their event, & stand up for workers' rights✊

ALT TEXT: Three women at the top of a conference table, with one standing up to speak in the middle. The desk is brown veneer wood, and behind the women are two cornflower blue banners which read "Scotland For Decriminalisation". The woman on the left, Laura, has pale skin, ginger hair down to her waist, and an orange dress. In the centre, ruth has a short brown bob, tanned white skin, and round glasses. She is wearing a 'Free Palestine' badge on her blazer. On the right, Maggie Chapman MSP wears a black dress with pink spots, and is writing. She has tanned white skin, short grey-brown hair, and thin framed glasses.

ALT TEXT: A group of people stand in front of a cornflower blue banner which reads "Scotland For Decriminalisation". They are all smiling into the camera, most with their hands clasped in front of them.

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 12

If you’re based in Scotland, you can follow @Scotland4Decrim on Instagram, and use their email your MSP template tool to let your MSPs know that you want them to support sex workers’ rights: scotlandfordecrim.netlify.app

Scotland for Decrim

Demand full decriminalisation - write to your MSP now

scotlandfordecrim.netlify.app

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 12

Our amazing colleagues Laura and Victoria in Scotland for Decrim were on the BBC’s Scottish news podcast Scotcast this week, speaking about why sex workers oppose Ash Regan’s dangerous Nordic Model bill. Please listen and share, it’s a powerful episode: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Scotcast - Sex worker: Listen to me - BBC Sounds

How a proposed prostitution law could impact selling sex.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 7

Criminalising sex work does not make it go away, it makes it more dangerous for sex workers. The government needs to tackle poverty and the basic failure of our society to support people’s essential needs.

Text reading ‘Ending women's poverty, low benefits, disability discrimination, housing insecurity, lack of recognition for care responsibilities, and pay inequality - this is where the focus needs to be. We, the English Collective of Prostitutes, guarantee that prostitution rates would fall off a cliff if every woman in this country had financial independence and security. But making the work more dangerous while not even attempting to address these causal factors will only get more women hurt.’

Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 7

Austerity cuts to welfare and other crucial services since 2010 have led to the poverty crisis we’re now seeing across the country, which has driven more people into sex work to support themselves and their families.

Text reading ‘Austerity cuts and benefits-slashing policies have disproportionately harmed women, especially single mothers.
Research shows that policies like the two-child benefit cap are increasing child poverty, but children don't exist in a vacuum. Children are poor because their mothers are poor.
In 2018, the UN Rapporteur on poverty called austerity a "political choice" that specifically targets women. In 2019, a Work and Pensions Committee inquiry also acknowledged that benefits sanctions and delays to Universal Credit were pushing women into "survival sex".
Since then, hundreds of women have reached out to ECP for support whilst starting or returning to sex work. They said they had little choice - they couldn't survive doing other jobs, and the benefits system was failing them.’

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 7

Great article from our colleagues in the English Collective of Prostitutes about how criminalisation and poverty/financial need trap women in sex work. The government could solve this by decriminalising sex work and ensuring that our social security system is fit for purpose.

opendemocracy.net @opendemocracy.net · Aug 21

Outdated laws and benefit cuts: Why women can’t leave sex work

Poverty and cautions trap women in sex work – good policies could resolve this. But politicians don't want to know

bit.ly

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 6

Trans people are overrepresented in sex work in large part because of the discrimination and abuse they face in other workplaces and wider society. This EHRC guidance will hugely amplify that. Please write to your MP to demand democratic oversight of this harmful guidance. #NoTransSegregation

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance @transsolidarity.bsky.social · Sep 5

The EHRC Code will devastate trans people's lives. This is an emergency.

Here are three ways to fight back.

Take action now:
www.transsolidarityalliance.com/ehrc-code

Three ways to fight back

Email my MP
Call my MP
Meet my MP

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 5

You can also use our email template tool to email your MP to call on them to support sex workers’ rights: decrim-email.netlify.app

We need as many allies as possible to stand with us and show politicians that sex workers’ rights matter. We need full decrim now! 💪

End the criminalisation of sex work

The evidence is clear: criminalisation makes sex workers less safe.

decrim-email.netlify.app

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 5

You can read the English Collective of Prostitutes’ powerful letter to the Home Secretary here, calling on her to end the unjust use of prostitutes’ cautions by police: prostitutescollective.net/open-letter-...

Open Letter: To Home Secretary - Abolish "Prostitute's Cautions" - English Collective of Prostitutes

SIGN ONLINE HERE Or email [email protected] to be added. Dear Home Secretary, We are writing to ask that you take action to abolish ‘prostitute’s cautions’ which trap women in sex work, pr...

prostitutescollective.net

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 5

This is still going on, now in the context of a deepening poverty crisis across the country. The government must listen to sex workers and allies, and end the criminalisation of sex work.

Text reading ‘"Sex workers around the country continue to receive prostitute's cautions from the police for working on the street," Megan, one of the coordinators of Decrim Now, told Big Issue.
"This hands them a criminal record that makes it incredibly difficult to get another job, essentially trapping them in sex work. At a time when the UK is facing a poverty crisis and the government is considering cutting disability benefits, it's outrageous that sex workers are being punished for doing what they need to in order to survive."
In June, Watson and others from the English Collective of Prostitutes delivered a letter
signed by 80 others, requesting the government abolish prostitute's cautions, expunge criminal records which trap women in prostitution.’

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 5

Sharon’s story is a shocking example of exactly what happens to hundreds of sex workers around the country - criminalised for doing sex work to survive, and prevented from leaving sex work as a result.

Text reading ‘"I never realised all of that [the cautions and convictions] would be included in my history," she said.
But she found out the huge impact her sex work would have on her ability to find other work when she tried to start a career in
nursing at the age of 28.
Sharon enrolled on a nursing course at college, and had to find a job in the nursing field to accompany her classroom learning.
"I applied for jobs and got taken on by a nursing agency," she said. "But when they got my CRB check [a criminal record check now known as a DBS check] back, it was the end of that. It was so embarrassing. I was still young enough to have a career, but the police record stopped me. I would have been good at nursing."’

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Decrim Now @decrimnow.bsky.social · Sep 5

We were pleased to speak to Lauren recently for this important article on how the criminalisation of sex workers traps them in sex work, giving them a criminal record which makes it much more difficult to get another job. The government must take urgent action to ban prostitutes’ cautions.

Lauren Crosby Medlicott @laurenmedlicott.bsky.social · Aug 4

Campaigners say sex workers are being punished for surviving, as Sharon recalls her first caution at just 15 in Bristol.

Find out more in my story, with so much help from English Collective of Prostitutes and Decrim Now, for @bigissue.com.

www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Sex workers 'trapped' in prostitution by 'unjust' police cautions

When sex workers receive a police caution it stays on their record for life, diminishing their chances of a future career.

www.bigissue.com

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