Strip clubs, massage parlours and porn film producers are among those able to claim Government cash under a Department for Work and Pensions scheme.

The DWP’s youth contract allows employers to claim wage incentives of up to £2,275 for each new recruit aged 18-24 who has been receiving benefits for at least six months through Jobcentre Plus.

Strip clubs are not allowed to claim the subsidy for the actual performers, but the establishment can receive the cash for any bar staff, door staff, receptionists or cleaners they employ, according to guidelines for DWP staff posted to scribd.com. The same applies to saunas and massage parlours.

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For part time employees a company can claim up to £1,137.50.

While a glamour model, pornographic actress and webcam sex performers are not eligible under the scheme, those who take the pictures and do the filming are. Directors, producers and sound people who work in porn are also covered.

‘Mud wrestlers’, ‘cat fighters’, ‘topless cleaners’ and burlesque performers are explicitly excluded from the subsidy.

Confirming that the guidelines are genuine, the DWP told the Huffington Post UK: “This Government took action to ensure jobs in the adult industry which might exploit jobseekers were not advertised through Jobcentre Plus.

“We also ensured that to be eligible for our schemes jobs must not exploit vulnerable jobseekers.”

In a statement to The Sunday Times, the department added that jobcentres had been “guided” to only discuss jobs in the adult industry when young people asked about them.

Labour MP Fiona Mactaggart, who has called for the subsidy to be axed for the sex industry, told the newspaper: “I do not think parents would welcome this government-sponsored recruitment into the sex industry...These are entry-level jobs into a world of gross exploitation and violence.”