Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment Initially, both the DWP and Atos denied 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 of a "norm" was intended to ensure consistency across the firm's UK team: if the assessor's reports met the DWP's expectations, the healthcare professional would not be asked to change their recommendations. In May 2013, another doctor who had
Incapacity Benefit (WCA)". However, a decision later that year to overhaul the test's criteria delayed the start of the reassessment programme. In the autumn of 2010, with Freud now a government minister responsible for welfare reform, two pilot studies took place. 1347 people who had been on Incapacity Benefit for more than two years were assessed against the new criteria that would be used to gauge the fitness for work of more than two million such people from the spring of the following year. Professor Harrington asked MIND, Mencap and the National Autistic Society to "provide recommendations on refining the mental, intellectual