Tricks of the Job Trade in Germany

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

The thrust of this story? After legalizing prostitution, brothels had to register employees and any available positions (no pun intended).

"Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take any available job – including in the sex industry (i.e. prostitute, sex line worker) – or lose her unemployment benefit."

"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."