Hillhead’s welfare rights service gains national advice standards accreditation

Hillhead Housing Association has successfully gained National Standards accreditation for the provision of Information and Advice for our welfare rights service.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board conducted a review of the Association on behalf of the Scottish Government as part of the accreditation/reaccreditation process as defined in the Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice Providers: A Quality Assurance Framework 2009.

Hillhead's welfare rights service gains national advice standards accreditation

Hillhead’s welfare rights officers Moira Escreet and Morag Bisset with the National Standards Certificate

The scope of the review included:

  • General Management Standards,
  • Standards for Planning,
  • Standards for Accessibility and Customer Care,
  • Standards for Providing the Service,
  • Standards around Competence, and
  • Resourcing Standards.

Hillhead Housing Association has been providing a welfare rights service since 2005 and in 2015 expanded its service with the support of the Big Lottery Fund.

Since the service started it has successfully achieved additional financial client gains of £4,674,786 for tenants. In the last year alone it has supported 355 tenants and achieved financial gains of £651,885.

During the last two years Hillhead has seen Universal Credit rolled out in its area with more than 200 tenants now in receipt of this benefit. With migration from other benefits planned for 2019 the Association said it is in a strong place to be able to support and offer advice to tenants reliant on a challenging and changing benefits system.

Share icon
Share this article: