A charity that helps vulnerable women has condemned a government-run jobs website for advertising escort roles.



Jobcentre Plus, which is run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), features several escort vacancies on its website. However, the advertising of this role, which can pay as much to £100 an hour – has been criticised as it is said to “clearly” lead women into prostitution.



One of the adverts that were featured on the site was for a unisex escort agency, which was seeking new staff to work in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The advert stated that applicants had to be free to work between two and 15 hours a week, as well as being available day and night, 7 days per week. The website also stated that the job was permanent, although no pension details are available.

The escort vacancy details read: "Duties involve providing clients with a personal escort service in an unsupervised environment. Experience is preferred but is not essential. Duties will involve escorting and accompanying members of the public, which may cause embarrassment to some people. Some cash handling will also be involved.”



Despite the controversy surrounding these roles, a Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson has said that they cannot refuse to advertise the positions due to a 2003 ruling at the High Court. He said: “The High Court over-turned Jobcentre Plus's policy, which did not accept certain types of adverts connected with the sex and personal service industries.” Despite this, he said that there was safeguards in place to make sure customers were completely aware of the nature of these jobs. He also stated that there would be no benefit sanctions if people did not want to apply for these vacancies.



However, this wasn’t enough for Frances Broderick of women’s charity Eaves, who said that she was “shocked” by the adverts, which she said were “clearly helping women into prostitution.” She said: “I'm shocked that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are even advertising this as an opportunity. It's clearly not a suitable career choice for the DWP to be promoting.”



Labour MP Fiona MacTaggart echoed this sentiment, she said: “At the moment, it's quite legal to buy or sell sexual services and I think maybe the time has come to tackle that, to actually change the law... to make it illegal to buy sex.”



Source:



BBC