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 course of a decade but it increased it by two billion pounds. The government has said there is no causal link between the WCA process itself and the deaths of people found fit for work. A medical expert who played a lead role in selecting the test's mental health criteria in 2007 later told MPs that the DWP had been "forced into rushing the design of the WCA". In February 2018 a former Conservative minister at the DWP, Baroness Altmann, said: "The extent of the appeals clearly indicates that something is seriously wrong with the system". In the same month