Mother Of Eight On Welfare Claims She Can"t Get A Job Because She"s "A Sex Symbol"

Let’s not pretend for a moment that single parents have it easy. Anybody raised by a single parent who grew into a reasonably well-adjusted human ready for life knows what an amazing feat that was. And having more kids only raises the difficulty level. Even though there’s always love to go around, there isn’t always enough time, enough attention, or enough money. It’s tough out there, but that’s what makes you tough. 

Marie Buchan, a 37-year-old mother of eight from Birmingham, England, receives almost $40,000 a year in welfare benefits and says she’s “too beautiful” to work.

She has been trying to get experience as a mechanic, but says she has only met sleazy men at all the garages she has tried. “They’re not really after me working there, they’re looking for something more,” she told The Daily Star. “I think they’re just dirty big perverts.”

British media have taken to calling her “Octomum” because of her large family. Her eight kids are between the ages of three and 15. 

She has been roasted in the past by the media for leeching off the welfare system, but she says that when she tries to find work, she gets hit on instead. “They’ll say things like, ‘What do you do when the kids aren’t around, would you fancy going for a drink, would there be anything else you’d like to do in the garage other than work on cars?’”

She says she wants to work in a garage specifically to combat sexism around cars.

“I’m sick of driving into a garage where most mechanics seem to think, ‘We can rip her off, she’s a woman,’” she says. “It’s always been my dream and women are always getting ripped off – I want to put a stop to that.”

However, her dream seems to be in peril because, as her studies near completion, she can’t find a place to get an apprenticeship.

“You’ve got women in the police force, in the Army, we have the skills, it’s just that men see us as sex symbols,” she says. “I’m not going to be able to get the experience I need in a garage full of men. But there aren’t any women mechanics in my area, so I don’t know where it’s going to come from.”This isn’t the first time Marie has tried to get a job while claiming benefits, however.