A single mother of eight who receives benefits of £2,000 a month claims she is being forced to find her first job because of the new cap on welfare handouts.

Marie Buchan, of Selly Oak in Birmingham, receives benefits of £26,000 a year but claims the decision to cap handouts at £23,000 will leave her and her young family struggling to survive.

The 33-year-old fears the cap will leave many families in financial difficulty and could cause similar problems to the bedroom tax.

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Marie Buchan (centre), of Selly Oak, Birmingham, pictured with her children (from left) Joshua, eight; Mikayla, four; Tia, 12; ten-month-old Olivia; Leah, 11; Latoya nine; Amelia, two and Alisha, six, claims proposals to cap benefits at £23,000 will leave her young family on the breadline and force her into work

Her concerns come in spite of her being told that if she works for 16 hours a week she will still be eligible to get the full £23,000 maximum pay out.

'This benefits cap is getting out of control,' she said.

'I am being forced into work. You're going to get similar cases as to what happened with the bedroom tax - people taking their own lives due to the financial pressures they are feeling. It will hit people that hard.'

Miss Buchan had her first appointment at the Jobcentre this week.

She added: 'I was very shocked when I heard David Cameron's plans for capping. It was bad enough when the benefits were capped last time.

'I have eight children who need to be fed and clothed and properly looked after, but it's so difficult to do that when money is so tight. I think most are struggling to pay rent under the current cap - I know I am.

'It is a constant struggle.'

Miss Buchan is pictured with White Dee (left), star of reality TV show Benefits Street, and outside her home

Marie Buchan says she will be around £58 a week worse off if the new cap comes in and is concerned

She has been told if she works 16 hours a week she will still receive child tax credit and child benefit and up to £350 in childcare.

Miss Buchan added: 'I went to a work focus interview and was told if I work for 16 hours a week I would get my full rent paid.

'I would be so much better off as I would still be entitled to child tax credit and child benefit, and then also up to £350 childcare. It appears going back to work may be the only option for me.

Ms Buchan said the benefits cap could force many families like her own to struggle to cope financially

Ms Buchan (left) and pictured with five of her offspring (right) said the first benefits cap left her struggling

'I know I will be the better person for working but it will be tough with eight children to look after. I did attempt to start work and had it all in place to do a 16-hour cleaning job but the kids didn't want to get ready in the morning, so I could leave in time. It's going to be so tough.'

WHAT DOES THE NEW BENEFITS CAP MEAN? David Cameron has announced plans to reduce the benefits cap from £26,000 to £23,000 a year. The maximum loss - on top of the effects of the existing cap - would be £60 a week, with an average weekly loss of around £40 or £25 for those newly capped. It would apply to combined income from; Jobseeker’s allowance, income support, employment support allowance, housing benefit, child benefit, child tax credit, industrial injuries and disablement benefit. In 2013 the initial £26,000 cap was introduced. Mr Cameron said the new measures would be introduced within the first few days of a new Government being formed. He said the savings generated would provide another £135 million towards funding three million apprenticeships by 2020. The Prime Minister rejected claims the new cap would plunge more families into poverty and said some complained it was higher than what some working people are earning. Advertisement

Miss Buchan claims her children, all of whom are under 13, leave her working up to 21 hours a day.

The single mother receives £2,227 a month in benefits. Her relationship with her partner and father of all of her offspring ended in 2013 because he could not handle having so many children.

She cares for Tia, 12, Leah, 11, Latoya, nine, Joshua, eight, Alisha, six, Mikayla, four, Amelia, two, and Olivia, one, on her own with their father seeing them at weekends.

The mother-of-eight, who lives in a four bedroom council house, has been receiving benefits since she had her first child at 19.

She previously complained after David Cameron capped current benefits at £26,000 - the average household weekly wage - saying the cap would leave her on the breadline.

Mr Cameron announced the new cap and said he was responding to claims that the current limit is too high. He said money saved from the proposed post-general election cuts would be used to fund new apprentice schemes.

However critics have warned the consequences of the cap would bear most heavily on children.

Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: 'Lets be absolutely clear - the benefit cap is at least nine times more likely to affect children than adults, and the majority of adults it hits are lone parents, many of whom have children so young even the Government recognises they should not be required to work.

'Britain is facing a looming child poverty crisis. Lowering the benefit cap would bring it several steps closer. It would pile on the misery for working and non-working families already struggling to pay for absolute basics.'