Webcam performes wanted

A Jobcentre has provoked outrage after it was found to be advertising for women to strip for web cams on Internet sex sites for £8 an hour.

The controversial advertisement was posted in a Jobcentre Plus branch in Cardiff, south Wales and nationwide on the agency's website.

According to the advertisement, the role involves "explicit dialogue" and "performing for clients' or customers' fantasies".

The Department for Work and Pensions insisted that it is legally obliged to carry the advertisements. It is not the first time that Jobcentres have come under fire for offering sex work.

Earlier this year, Jobcentre branches were discovered offering work as £100 an hour "escorts" working for a company offering "no-strings adult fun".

The Department for Work and Pensions, which runs the Jobcentre network, insists that it is legally obliged to carry the advertisements after a test case brought by the Ann Summer sex shop chain in 2003.

Then a High Court judge ruled that Jobcentres must carry advertisements for legal work in the "sex and personal-services industries."

A spokeswoman for the DWP said: "Our advisers always check on the full details of any vacancies notified to us."