Hi everyone I am carer for someone who suffers from uncontrolled grand mal epilepsy, osteo arthritis, COPD and asthma. He take a LOT of meds to try to control the epilepsy but the best it gets is between 6 and 8 seizures per week - can be more but never less than 6. His days are spent very drowsy through the meds, confused most of the time, memory is non existant. He is not safe to cook as he burns pans, he cant cut vegetables as he has cut himself through either confusion or having a seizure in the middle of trying to cook. He looses control of both his bowels and bladder when he has seizures, he has to sleep for 3 or 4 hours after each seizure. Just trying to give you a tiny bit of understanding what his life it like. On top of that, the osteo arthritis is bad enough that there are days he can't get out of his chair - I have to help him get to the toilet etc. He is in the transition between IB and ESA. I helped him fill in the long form they sent him and returned it. He was then asked to attend for a medical though ATOS deemed that he should have a home visit as he would have had to go down 24 stairs in the event of a fire which he could not do. He had the home visit by their doctor at end November. She was actually really nice and was sympathetic to his disabilities. She asked me a lot of the questions as she fully understood that just before, during and after a seizure he is in a state of total confusion, doesn't know where he is or even who I am. She said she was satisfied but that it was down to the decision maker to decide what happens next. He received the dreaded letter on 29th December but the letter is dated 17th December so that's 12 days gone of appeal to start with. The letter stated that he had been put into the work focussed group. neither of us could understand how this could be so he phoned ATOS. He spoke to a really helpful man who said that so many people are being put into the wrong group and that he should appeal. He said he would send the decision makers report so we could see how the decision was made and how to word the appeal. He in fact sent the report made by the doctor with her comments and ticks all through it. That turned up on Saturday 5th January so another load of days of appeal have gone. We both went to see his GP this morning who said that she supports his appeal and that he should have been put into the support group and not the work focussed group. She said that his disability will not get any better and that it is not feasable for ATOS to require him to attend work focussed interviews and even more so in that the time for the work focussed group is 365 days. Things are not going to be any better then, in fact they could well be worse through the stress of the work group. She is going to write a letter to this efffect in the hope it will help with his appeal. He also called ATOS and told them that they sent the doctors report but not the decision makers report which we need for appeal. He was told that would be with him by the end of the week (hopefully). I was looking at the doctors report and all the ticks throughout it. It is full of contradictions. The doctor ticked the box that states that a return to work in the long term is highly unlikely and wrote that he is drowsy all day because of meds and has 6-8 seizures per week. She wrote that in her opinion he cannot return to work even in the long term. She wrote on the first couple of pages things which we had both told her which is all correct - cannot cook unaided, cannot go to new or familiar places as he gets so confused he forgets where he is going etc and walks into traffic when he is close to having a seizure so has no awareness of hazzards. Problem is that as I looked through all the different question numbers (I think they are descriptors??) she has ticked something totally different e.g., it asks for a box to be ticked about problems going to unfamiliar places and familiar places but instead of ticking that he cannot do this unaided, she ticked that NONE OF THE ABOVE APPLIES. She also did this on several other of these questions. She has said one thing in her written part yet the opposite in the ticked boxes under the numbered points. Everything she was told tallies with what was written on the long form we had to fill in at the beginning which resulted in being asked to attend the medical! What on earth can be done about this? 1. How can we write an appeal that he has been put into the wrong group and should be in the support group and 2. How can we appeal against what has been done on the doctor's report? Apologies that this is long but trust me this is very condensed - just needed to let you see exactly what is going on. Thanks for any help and advice