Britain’s ‘welfare Queen’ poses in newly-resurfaced footage

Images of a jobless mother-of-eight dubbed ‘Britain’s welfare queen’ have resurfaced after she admitted spending taxpayers’ cash on a host of ‘luxury’ treats.

Marie Buchan, 42, entered the benefits system at 19 and has enjoyed a life of extravagance having received  total of around half a million pounds to support her children, who are all fathered by the same man.

Ms Buchan revealed she has treated herself to a boob job, a designer vagina and a horse over the past decade, despite spending most of her adult life on benefits.  

She has also had her fair share of limelight in the media, with images of Ms Buchan showing her posing for a series of professional photos in 2017, while dressed in a black satin dress, having resurfaced online. 

But, the mother-of-eight says she is now ‘struggling’ with the current cost of living crisis and insists that the luxuries she once bragged about are a thing of the past. 

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’, Ms Buchan, who lives in Selly Oak, Birmingham said.

‘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. 

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.’

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.’