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
Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said the test, which her party had described as "tough but fair" in its 2010 manifesto, had been "discredited" by the coalition government. In February 2018 Kent University academic Ben Geiger, who has made international comparisons of the WCA and who was also a policy advisor to the DWP in 2015 and 2016, described the WCA as having been "a failure by almost any criteria". He explained that "there is no transparent evidence that the WCA captures the demands of work in Britain today" and said the test was "perhaps the greatest