http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/budget-2015-single-mum-of-8-fears-6030489
Budget 2015: Single mum-of-8 fears she could become homeless if her £26,000 benefits are capped
- In today's announcement, Chancellor George Osborne said benefits would be capped at £20,000 per year for those living outside London.
- Dire straits: Mum-of-eight Marie Buchan says the budget announcement could see her family on the streets
A single mum of eight children who gets a whopping £26,000 a year in benefits fears she could be on the streets thanks to the new
budget.
In today's announcement,
Chancellor George Osborne said benefits would be capped at £20,000 per year for those living outside London.
And Marie says the measure could thrust her brood into poverty, and may even leave her family homeless.
Birmingham’s most controversial mother said the chancellor’s new measure would leave her enormous family on the breadline and, potentially, out on the street.
“There are nine of us to feed and we are not living in luxury,” the jobless 33-year-old
told the Birmingham Mail.
BPM Media
Capped: Marie Buchan currently rakes in £26,000 a year in benefits
“There’s not a lot left now.”
The £20,000 welfare limit was among the measures announced by George Osborne in the first Tory-only Budget for 18 years.
But Marie said she was already behind with her rent and a £6,000 benefit drop would see her kicked out of her taxpayer-funded, four-bedroom home.
She said she already had one possession order – a document giving her landlord the right to evict her – against her name.
A £20,000 benefit ceiling would probably lead to another and see her children made homeless, she added.
Marie – dubbed Britain’s “welfare queen” – previously fuelled the storm over her massive family by revealing her hopes of having a ninth child with a surrogate.
But she said another baby was now not an option.
“Eight is more than enough to care for,” she said.
Marie lives in a house rented from Bournville Village Trust with her children Tia, 13, Leah, 12, Latoya, ten, Joshua, nine, Alisha, six, Mikayla, five, Amelia, three, and Olivia, aged 21 months.
Her £26,000 annual benefits package is composed of council tax, child benefit, child tax, income support and housing benefit of 50p a week.
It works out at around £500 a week, from which she pays rent of £137.
BPM
Hard up: Marie says the family are not living in luxury
Marie, who insisted she wanted to work, said £200 of the remaining £363 was swallowed up by food shopping and she also had to pay her utility and other bills.
She said she worked a 21-hour day caring for her children, rising at 6am and not going to bed until 3am, watched every penny and scoured eBay, car boot sales and charity shops for bargains.
“What really gets to me is I have had so much hate from over the world,” she said.
“People say I’m lazy and take, take, take.
“But I’m a mum of eight who is under the cap and works hard raising my eight children – a full-time job on its own.”
Marie said she used to work as a cleaner but had to quit because of issues with getting her children ready in the mornings.
She also attended a course for an NHS job but was told she could not take up her place as her youngest child would not be entitled to childcare.
Marie said she had been advised that her benefits cap would be removed if she worked 16 hours a week – allowing her the maximum state help with rent, council tax and childcare.
“I really want to work, but right now no-one is willing to help in any way,” she said.
“All I’m being told is to wait until my youngest is five.
“Working 16 hours will help me so much – yet I will be taking more from the state by working through [help with] rent, childcare and council tax.
“Right now I’m not getting any help, even though I’ve tried every angle possible.”
