Marie Buchan, a single mother who takes £20,000-a-year benefits from the UK government to support her family's lifestyle, is facing home eviction with her kids due to unpaid rent. The controversial Birmingham mother-of-eight slammed the government for capping her benefits.
The Birmingham Mail reported that Buchan appeared at Birmingham County Court last Wednesday after incurring a hefty bill of more than £4,000. The single parent has successively failed to pay the £600-a-month rent of her new Selly Oak home.
The ruling on the case whether Buchan's family should be evicted or not is scheduled on Monday. If the court will not favor her, she and her eight kids will be forced to leave the house by April 13.
Buchan, who describes herself as a full-time mom to eight kids between the ages of 13 and two, blamed the government's benefits cap for her current situation. She claimed that the £500-a-week handouts are not enough to pay the rent of her four-bedroom house.
The jobless mom has been enjoying annual benefits package that is made up of council tax, child benefit, child tax, income support and housing benefit. However, her benefits fell from £26,000 to £20,000 after the government introduced the cap.
"Lots of people are getting themselves in this situation because of the benefits cap. Raising eight kids on the cap while paying full rent is hard enough," Buchan complained.
"I have been trying to find work for a long time now but it is not that easy," she added. "As soon as you say you have eight dependents they don't want to know. My only way out of the cap is doing 16 hours of work a week."
According to the Daily Mail, Buchan lives with her kids Tia, Leah, Latoya, Joshua, Alisha, Mikayla, Amelia, and youngest Olivia. She got her Selly Oak home last year after she demanded the local council that she should get a larger house because her previous three-bedroom home was too small for her huge brood.
