Sandwell Council tells son to pay up £7,300 after late father took out disabled facilities grant
The son of a prolific fundraiser has been ordered to pay more than £7,000 to Sandwell Council for a disabled facilities grant taken out by his late father, in a move described by a local MP as "outrageous".
In September 2021, Tony Roper agreed to take out an £11,000 grant from Sandwell Council in order to have a stairlift installed in his house in Tipton, as well as to convert his bathroom into a shower room.
The cost of the grant would gradually be worked off over the following decade, or would be cancelled if Mr Roper would "suffer financial hardship" if he were to repay the grant.
The grant would also be cancelled if Mr Roper needed to move properties for the following reasons: to take up or change employment, for physical or mental health reasons, or to live with or near a person who needed care.
Sadly, Mr Roper died in February this year at the age of 82, and Sandwell Council is now demanding Mr Roper's eldest son, Anthony Roper, pay back £7,300 of the grant.
This is despite the fact the shower room and stair lift had significant problems for many months, rendering them "unusable" for months at a time.
Anthony Roper, the son of Tony Roper, told the Express & Star: "My father involved me in all financial decisions but he never told me about this. I was his next of kin and the executor of his will.
"We'd have stopped him if we knew. We'd have converted the back room into his bedroom and he could have used the downstairs toilet.
"He became very ill and confused in his later months. We said in the last year of his life that he wasn't in a fit state of mind.
"Why would a man in his 80s agree to something that tied him into that property for the next 10 years?"
'A catalogue of errors'
