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
Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment that: "...capability assessors too often have a culture of disbelief about disability, especially mental illness". Professor Louis Appleby leads the National Suicide Prevention Strategy in England. In February 2018 he told "Disability News Service" that sickness benefit recipients were "a high risk group" and, while it was rare for one thing alone to trigger suicide, "a protracted stressful benefit claim, feelings of being treated unfairly, and of course financial problems themselves can all contribute". Furthermore, on the question of claimants committing suicide as they tried to qualify for their benefits, Professor Appleby said: "I've no doubt for some people claiming