Question 2 on the most recent Unit 2 paper raises an important issue as to the status of a counter-assertion/-claim. The passage begins thus
'Although it costs the taxpayer over £100 million a year, the cervical cancer vaccination programme for teenage girls should be continued.'
Candidates are asked to say what the function of the 'it costs the taxpayer over £100 million a year' is. The choices are counter-argument, counter-assertion, intermediate conclusion, and reason. Presumbaly the answer is meant to be 'counter-assertion' in that it isn't any of the others.
But I'm not convinced that it is a counter-assertion. The argument doesn't address the issue of cost but gives reasons why the programme should be supported. It could well be that nobody uses the cost issue as part of a counter-argument. Just because one might frame an objection in terms of cost doesn't make it a counter-assertion in the context of this particular argument. A counter-assertion is one when the counter to it is directly addressed as in 'Although it costs the taxpayer over £100 million a year, the money saved in the future would be considerably more than this.'
If I was a candidate, I think that I'd have got it right but for the wrong reason.