Work Capability Assessment to the DWP and would no longer be allowed to recommend any claimants for the Support Group without asking for permission first. When the doctor asked an experienced assessor where these rules had come from, she replied: "DWP". Both the DWP and Atos categorically denied ever having had any target for getting claimants "off" sickness benefits. However, both eventually admitted that Support Group "norms" were being used nationwide, though they both denied that the purpose of "targeted audit" was to limit the number of claimants placed in the Support Group. Atos said that the audit process triggered by the breach
Incapacity Benefit had not changed significantly; what had changed was the rate at which recipients were coming "off" the benefit to move back into work (after their illness had begun to improve, for instance, or by finding a job "despite" their disability) - it had fallen. The bulk of the rise in the caseload occurred during the late 1980s, the 1990s and the first years of the 21st century. In 2004, the caseload began to "fall" slowly. Ministers complained about a "sick-note culture" that allowed people to drift onto Incapacity Benefit. A medical certificate from a GP is the first step onto