Woman Told To Work As Hooker Or Lose Benefits

A Stoke woman who turned down a job providing "services'' at a massage parlour in Cobridge faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced by the current government.

Kelly Holdcroft, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.

Could this be a massage parlour?

She received a letter from the Jobcentre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman realise that she was calling a massage parlour.

Under the government's benefit reforms, anyone who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take any available job offered to them or lose their unemployment benefit.

When Ms Holdcroft looked into suing the Jobcentre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Jobcentres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.