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 declared 'fit for work' formally appealed against the decision, at which stage 40% of decisions challenged were overturned and the claimant moved onto ESA, not JSA. By May 2017, fewer than 3000 people were still receiving the old payment. The number of claimants of sickness benefits increased rapidly from the mid-1980s. The trend was investigated in a series of studies commissioned by the government in 1991 and published in 1993. Several possible causes were identified: The House of Commons research paper that summarised the studies' findings in the 1990s concluded that the number of new claims and their general pattern