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Desperate women are turning to sex work to survive after Universal Credit leaves them with as little as £50 a month, according to outreach workers.

Workers at Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH) - a charity which works with the city’s female sex workers - say the situation for many women is tougher than ever before.

And they believe that the cases they know of women pushed into prostitution by benefits reform may only be the tip of the iceberg.

One woman told charity workers that she sat at home deliberating before deciding that sex work was her only option to make some cash.

Another woman went into prostitution after she found herself in debt to the government for four separate ‘advance payments' of benefits.

MASH workers say they are also seeing an increase in rough sleeping and drug and alcohol use with vulnerable women involved in on-street sex work in Manchester, reports the Manchester Evening News .

Are you struggling on Universal Credit? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk

(Image: Getty Images)

MASH operations manager Tina Threadgold, who has worked for the charity for 18 years, said: "There has always been an issue with benefits and women supplementing a very low income, but it’s never felt quite as bad as it is now.

“Now it’s at rock bottom, the worst I have ever seen it."

Sanctions, the wait for the first payment and the accumulation of debt due to deductions or Advance Payments have been identified as the main aspects causing difficulties for benefits claimants.

Caroline Leavy is the MASH homeless outreach worker.

“We have seen a number of women recently who have never sex worked before turning to it,” she says.

“If they come out here and don’t know the street dynamics, they’re not street wise and they have no background,” Tina says.

“It makes them more unsafe because they are more reluctant to engage with our MASH mobile outreach van.

“They’re not getting all the safety info and the support and sexual health services they could be getting if they identified as sex workers. Really they’re hoping nobody notices that they have done it.

“And they probably wouldn’t report anything that might happen to them or any dodgy punters."

The Work and Pensions Committee is currently investigating the link between UC and so-called ‘survival sex’ after charities reported an increase.

Caroline says that in the last three months alone, five women who had never done sex work before have 'reluctantly' engaged with MASH workers, who can link them with organisations like Shelter and the Professional Budgeting Service.

“They all say they have turned to sex work because of Universal Credit out of sheer desperation,” she says.

“They have spoken about the enormous stress and the emotional impact of having to sex work when it’s something they have never done before.”

She adds: “One lady we saw who had never sex worked before she said she was at home for a really long time deliberating and thinking of all the alternatives and all the other avenues were closed to her. You could tell she had really wrestled with it.

Universal Credit is usually paid monthly and claimants need to agree to terms set out between them and their work coach. If a claimant fails to meet one or more of their responsibilities they may receive reduced payments - known as a sanction.

“We’ve had women who have sex worked in the past but haven’t worked for maybe 10 - 15 years. One woman had not worked for many years. They’ve had to turn back to sex work while they’re waiting for their first Universal Credit payments", Caroline says.

“Or they're being sanctioned. Some women don’t have the skills to be able to do it online or miss an appointment. So they’ve turned back to sex work.”

Deductions from the payments of those who have accepted Advance Payments have also caused stress for women.

(Image: Getty Images)

“We have seen people who are getting just under £100 a month because they’re got £220 in deductions,” says Caroline.

“One women had done a claim and gone into custody. This happened a couple of times and each time the UC claim had to be restarted. Each time she was having to wait weeks for each claim and each time she was offered an advance payment. She ended up paying off four lots of advance payments.

“They can be deferred but people don’t know realise that.”

Caroline started working at MASH nine years ago as the Government’s austerity policy was just taking hold.

“It’s dire,” she says. “You can see why people give up and fall homeless. We’re just trying to meet the needs of the clients but they’re becoming more and more difficult.

“These are complex issues that women are presenting with and the services aren’t there.”

The stark warning comes after MPs heard how evidence from a 21-year-old woman who says she was left scrabbling around for enough money to afford tampons or a Pot Noodle.

The anonymous sex worker and former carer - known as T - gave harrowing evidence at a private Parliamentary hearing.

She said she had turned to sex work when UC left her with around £52 to live and was forced to visit foodbanks three times while waiting for her first formal payment.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

"I had heard about a girl who was dancing and things and she told us about escorting,” she told MPs.

"I used to judge people like that, you know, I would never do nothing like that, but I thought it was the easiest way.”

T told MPs: "I am trying my best, £30 on shopping, not a penny over, because if I go a penny over I can’t get other stuff that I need, tampons and things, do you know what I mean?

"That Universal Credit advance, by the time I got it I had spent it and then I was waiting another three to four weeks.

"Even then when I got my benefit, they were taking £150 off my benefit and I was left with £50."

Since claiming UC she lost her house and was living between friends while also paying fees to use an apartment for sex work.

"Whatever money I make that day, I pay some rent so I can stay there that night... get a Pot Noodle” she said.

"If I pay £60 for one day, I can stay there that night.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

"But I am having to do five or six duties of sex before I get to pay my rent and stuff."

Describing two recent 12-hour shifts she added: “Having sex for 12 hours for two days in a row is a lot.

"It is a lot just to think, 'Oh, I have done this for 12 hours today. I have my gas, electric and my food and tomorrow I am going to have to do it all over again to pay my rent'. It is awful.

"What happens if one day we don’t want to and we don’t feel like it or lady things happen?

"Because that is another thing, like when it is your time of the month and stuff, we do not want to work."

A Department of Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: “We’re committed to providing a safety net for the most vulnerable in society and urge anyone who feels they need further support to contact us.

“People claiming UC can access 100 per cent advance payments from day one of a claim and other support includes continuing to pay Housing Benefit for two weeks as people move over from the old system.”