A jobless mother-of-eight has told how she wants to turn her life around by finally getting work while still claiming benefits she is entitled to.
Marie Buchan, 42 – dubbed ‘Britain’s welfare queen’ and newly pictured today after making her pledge – told MailOnline: ‘It’s time to finally get a job!
‘I don’t want to keep being portrayed as the benefits scrounger.’
The former lap dancer is determined to silence her cruel online abusers, who brand her a ‘parasite’, ‘scrounger’ and ‘scum’ and say they hope she dies soon.
She had previously said that living off the state has also allowed her to enjoy a life of extravagance and splash out on pricey cosmetic surgery and a horse.
Marie Buchan (seen in 2017), 42 – dubbed ‘Britain’s welfare queen’ – has told how she wants to turn her life around by finally getting work while still claiming benefits she is entitled to
Newly pictured today after making her pledge, she told MailOnline: ‘It’s time to finally get a job! I don’t want to keep being portrayed as the benefits scrounger’
The single mother-of-eight (seen with all her children, now aged from 10 to 23) had previously said that living off the state has also allowed her to enjoy a life of extravagance and splash out on pricey cosmetic surgery and a horse
She has decided try to secure her first job in seven years ‘because the kids are growing up and I don’t need to be running around for the them as much’.
She last worked in 2017 as a part-time carer.
Ms Buchan, who has long blonde hair, plumped lips and designer lashes, spoke briefly outside her council home in Selly Oak, near Birmingham, West Midlands, saying: ‘I want to get back to work as soon as possible.
‘I’ll still be able to claim benefits, like child benefits and others, that’s the crazy world we live in.
‘But living on benefits only for the rest of your life, and not earning, is no way to live.’
Ms Buchan, who is a single parent to seven daughters and a son, aged from 10 to 23, and has a two-year-old grandson, hopes to become a health care assistant.
She said: ‘I’m not working now but I want to go back to work. I’d love to work for the NHS.’
She told how she has recently been offered jobs in marketing and retail but her ‘aim is being in health to help others’.
Seen earlier, Ms Buchan said: ‘Living on benefits only for the rest of your life, and not earning, is no way to live’
The busy mother, who appears to be continuously doing school runs, errands and household chores, spoke out after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday announced a crackdown on benefits fraud in a bid to tackle ‘worklessness’
She added: ‘I’ll still be able to claim benefits, like child benefits and others, that’s the crazy world we live in’
The busy mother, who appears to be continuously doing school runs, errands and household chores, spoke out after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday announced a crackdown on benefits fraud in a bid to tackle ‘worklessness’.
Ms Buchan, who said she is proud to be bringing up her kids alone without the help of a partner, has been in the system for 23 years and has received around half a million pounds in government handouts.
In the past she has boasted about the ‘luxuries’ she has bought with taxpayers’ cash – claiming that being on benefits for most of her adult life has never held her back.
She caused fury in 2018 after travelling to Turkey for a £1,500 boob job, going from a 34A cup to a 34D.
And the following year, she jetted off again for laser treatment to achieve a ‘designer vagina’.
She also bought a horse with her benefits, but said she later had to give him away as she couldn’t afford to keep him.
‘Being on benefits has never held me back from doing anything,’ Ms Buchan said according to The Sun. ‘I have had a lot of luxuries.’
‘I paid £600 upfront for the horse and then had to pay an additional £100 a month to keep him at the yard. Food was around £25 a month.
‘It was a big mistake. I was rubbing it in people’s faces and I was showing off and I really regret that.’
Ms Buchan has insisted that she used money raised from car boot sales to pay for her plastic surgeries but says she understands now why people were outraged.
It is also likely that the items sold at the events were bought with money she claimed from the state.
The mother-of-eight, who said she didn’t have a lot growing up, entered the benefits system when she had her first child at 19.
She said she was on and off benefits at the time as whenever she had a child she would stop work.
The former lap dancer (pictured in 2017) is determined to silence her cruel online abusers, who brand her a ‘parasite’, ‘scrounger’ and ‘scum’
She previously revealed how she receives horrendous online abuse from haters who tell her she is a ‘s***’ and say they ‘hope she dies’
Ms Buchan has caused fury in the past, spending money to fly to Turkey for a boob job and later jetting off for treatment to achieve a ‘designer vagina’
Ms Buchan said she eventually chose to stay on benefits to be able to dedicate herself to bringing up her children.
She explained that there is little incentive to work as her family is ‘better off on benefits’.
‘It’s very easy to sit in the system for the rest of your life,’ Ms Buchan said.
She previously hit the headlines after claiming she was being forced to use foodbanks to feed her children due to benefit cuts.
Ms Buchan said back in 2021: ‘It is a huge struggle for me. Two of my daughters are over the age of 16 now so I have had my benefits, like child benefits and tax credit, cut.
‘I am around £160 per week worse off now. It is a struggle and I use food banks just to survive. I basically live on food banks at the moment.
‘You have to do what you have to do to survive and I am so grateful that I can turn to them. They are a lifesaver for me and so so many other people.’
She continued: ‘Unfortunately I have been given the nickname octomum and that has stuck. It is definitely holding me back from getting a job.
‘I have applied for a number of jobs. Employers seem keen at first but when they realise who I am, I am rejected.
‘I fear I will never be able to shake the octomum tag off.’
Ms Buchan also revealed how she receives horrendous online abuse from haters who tell her she is a ‘s***’ and say they ‘hope she dies’.
She said: ‘Some of the abuse I receive is just vile. They call me a parasite, a s*** and they ‘hope I die soon’.
‘Others say I’m a ‘scrounger’ and I’ve had threats of men coming to get me and ‘teach me a lesson’.
‘It can be hell at times. I don’t know what people get out of being so horrible but they must just get sick kicks.
‘It is very hard at times to read that stuff and horrible for the children as well. When you are feeling low it can really make you sink even lower.
‘It has got to stop. People don’t understand the impact on someone who is in the limelight. I have contacted the police before due to the threats.’
Ms Buchan moved into the semi-detached house in 2015 after moaning Government cuts to the benefits cap would leave her family on the breadline.
But she fell behind on payments despite raking in a £500-a-week benefits package consisting of council tax, child benefit, child tax, income support and housing benefit.
In January 2021, Ms Buchan revealed she had been isolating at home with coronavirus when she became extremely ill and was hospitalised.
An ambulance was sent to her home and she was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she was placed on a drip.
Ms Buchan told how she thought she was going to die as she coughed up blood and suffered coughing fits but survived.
The single mother previously attended a course for an NHS job but was told she couldn’t take up her place as her youngest child wouldn’t be entitled to childcare.
Almost three million people in the UK are currently out of work due to ill health. This is 500,000 more than it was in 2019.
The cost of sickness and disability benefits are expected to increase by £30bn in the next five years, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The Prime Minister has announced his government will be cracking down on benefit fraud with new legislation in a bid ‘to tackle worklessness’.
Sir Keir said during his Labour conference speech on Tuesday: ‘If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud, do everything we can to tackle worklessness.’
Sir Keir said during his Labour conference speech on Tuesday: ‘If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud, do everything we can to tackle worklessness’
He also said that he believes long-term benefit claimants need to look for work if they are able to.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Prime Minister said: I think the basic proposition that you should look for work is right.
‘Obviously there will be hard cases, but the way I would do it is to say yes, that’s the basic proposition, but we also want to support that so that more people can get into work.’
He had earlier said: ‘I’ve gone out and looked at schemes where businesses are supporting people back into work from long term sickness.
‘Because quite often I think what lies behind this is a fear for someone who’s been on long-term sickness, that can they get back into the workplace? Are they going to be able to cope? Is it all going to go hopelessly wrong?
‘Yes they need to be back in the workplace where they can, but I do think that if we can put the right support in place, which I’ve seen pilots of, they work pretty well, and we want to see more of those across the country.’
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