YouTuber charges up to £650 for advice on how to claim disability payments
A diability advocate is reportedly using a YouTube channel to charge benefits claimants up to £650 to advise them how to obtain disability payments.
Charlotte Anderson, 46, uses the video website to publish her advice. In the videos she explains how to successfully navigate the Department for Work and Pensions’ processes to claim the maximum amount legally available to them.
In half of her successful cases, her clients have “purely mental health conditions”, she said.
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not means-tested and is currently worth up to £798.63 per month.
Ms Anderson, of Bucknall, in Staffordshire, broadcasts videos advising people how to claim Personal Independence Payments from the Government.
Under the name Charlie Anderson, who is disabled herself and suffers from chronic illness, claims that she has only ever lost one case in six years.
Yet she also runs a sideline in personalised consultancy around PIP forms, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Through her YouTube channel, she advertises her services filling in forms on their behalf, charging up to £650.
Her YouTube channel says, under the heading “PIP Claim Form – Do It For You” that she will schedule a video call of up to two hours “where I will ask lots of questions and make loads of notes.
“Then I will go away and fill out your form (within 5 working days) for you (if you want to send it to me by post) OR I can write the answers we agree and email it to you so you can fill out the form yourself (and copy what I send you).”
Her 99 videos have been viewed just over a million times to date.
On her website she says her main advice to claimants is “just be honest. All we are doing is being honest about how our life is impacted.
“Yes you have to explain it in a way that meets to the PIP points, but you need to be honest in your answers. [sic]
“I do not agree with lying to win PIP.”
PIP is not means-tested so claimants can receive payouts regardless of income, savings or assets. Ms Anderson suffers from chronic fatigue and severe arthritis. She formerly worked as a contracts manager at a logistics company.
She rents out her bungalow and lives in the shed she broadcasts from.
In January, she wrote to her subscribers saying she was stopping taking on new consultancy clients because she could not keep up with demand.
“I currently have 33 clients that I am supporting with their claims and everyday I log on to my emails; more people have booked me.
“It’s too much and this does not include people who have submitted forms and are waiting for assessments,” she wrote.
A DWP spokesman said: “We are committed to a welfare system that is fair and accurately targeted to those who need it most.
“Our disability assessors are qualified health professionals and we conduct regular reviews to ensure payments are going to the right people.”
Ms Anderson was contacted by The Telegraph for comment.
