Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment ideation being described on the claim form. The coroner wrote to the DWP in January 2014. She was concerned that neither the Atos doctor nor the DWP decision-maker had sought information from Michael O'Sullivan's own doctors. The DWP wrote back, referring to the guidance issued to the Atos healthcare professionals who, before face-to-face assessments, scrutinised the paperwork submitted by claimants — guidance called the "Training and Development ESA Filework Guidelines". The DWP confirmed that suicidal thoughts had been described on Michael O'Sullivan's application form but said "further evidence was not requested in line with the stated policy [in the "Training
Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment cost to the taxpayer" because the independent tribunals that corrected the wrong decisions, funded by the Ministry of Justice, added a further £50m a year to the costs. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) found that in the period up to 2014, no savings had been made in the sickness benefit budget, which remained at more than £13 billion a year. In 2015, because many more claimants than forecast were now being placed in the Support Group, the government's fiscal watchdog had to raise its estimate for annual spending on ESA by at least one billion pounds. In 2016 the