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 associated statistically with the unexpected deaths of hundreds of people. There is evidence of harm in individual cases from coroners' reports, and from the DWP's own internal investigations into dozens of claimants' deaths. However, data suggesting that "thousands" of people have died has not withstood expert analysis. Officially, the DWP does not accept that the WCA or the way it has been carried out has caused any deaths. A committee from the United Nations wrote, with regard to 33 deaths investigated in secret by the DWP, that it was "not aware of any attempts at objective, thorough, open and impartial