Trying to help my girlfriend get out of sex work

[blonded]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to be looking for this kind of help, but I'm looking for any sort of advice on a situation my girlfriend (19 years old) has found herself in. For the past few months her primary income has been from online sex work (camming) and has recently decided she feels incredibly uncomfortable about it and doesn't wish to continue. She's trying to find another job to get by but will be unable to do so until her uni exams have finished (November 19). She lives out of home and today was hit with $300 in utility bills, not to mention the monthly rent she will have to pay in a few weeks (which I think is about $400-$500). She receives payments from Centrelink (Australian government funding), but it won't be nearly enough to cover these expenses and refuses to accept money from me (even though I have enough to cover everything). Her mum lives a long plane trip away, but she is unable to afford a ticket home to stay with her while these issues are handled. At this point her only option is to continue the online sex work until exams are over and she can find another job, which we are both incredibly uncomfortable with. The issue is not that I don't approve or don't think it's respectable work, it's that she's not comfortable doing it.
Any advice whatsoever is greatly appreciated, even if it's just recommending organisations that may be able to help or offer other advice.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Blonded,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for coming here. I'm really glad you're supporting your girlfriend and hopefully we can point you both in the right direction.

It sounds like the priority for your girlfriend is financial assistance until the end of the year until she can get some more income so I'm going to link to a couple of resources -

https://askizzy.org.au/

https://lifeline.serviceseeker.com.au/ (search finance at the top)

In both of these websites you can specify your postcode/town and it can show you what's in your area.

Alternatively, if your girlfriend is open to it, there are social workers around who might be able to outline more options for her. Centrelink has their own social worker who can tell her about extra payments that she might not be already getting (like rent assistance) or even payments in advance.

Hopefully this can give you a place to start. Perhaps let us know if we can help more.

[blonded]

Thank you so much for your response, it's a huge help! I didn't know Centrelink had their own social worker and will definitely follow that up. The Ask Izzy and Lifeline links seem to have some helpful information as well and I'll do some more research on those sites. Thanks again, it's appreciated!

[NMTB]

Hey blonded,

Just a quick note in case your girlfriend meets with a Centrelink social worker for advice. If she has not been declared to Centrelink the money she has earned from her online work whilst receiving Centrelink payments, it would be advisable not to mention anything about that.

Centrelink social workers are bound by the Privacy Act to keep things confidential, however, there are exceptions to this where another specific law applies. As you may know, detection of fraud is a very high legal priority with powers possessed by Centrelink.

So, I am just saying to be cautious on that particular aspect.

Cheers.