Blogspot

Engaging youth action: best-laid plans

Understanding the next generation and helping them to have a say about how their world is shaped is a hot topic at the moment.
 

Research into our neighbourhood model

An external organisation is carrying out some vital research into how the changes we made to the way we manage our neighbourhoods have had an impact on staff and stakeholders.
 

Universal Credit - a customer story

In the last blog in the series, we spoke to one of our customers who recently claimed Universal Credit (UC) with support from the Thirteen team. Her name has been changed for privacy reasons.
 

Universal Credit - partnerships

At Thirteen we have a long history of working in partnership with other organisations to co-deliver services to help everyone in the wider community, as well as our customers. In delivering support for Universal Credit (UC), we teamed up with Middlesbrough Council and the Financial Inclusion Group to extend our offer of help to all Middlesbrough residents and their landlords.
 

A day in the life of a Universal Credit coordinator

As our last blog showed, we’re really proud of the Universal Credit (UC) support we provide at Thirteen. It makes a huge difference to customers’ lives and makes sure that they have back-up when they need it.
 

Universal Credit - Introducing the team

Universal Credit (UC) has been with us at Thirteen for a few years now. Hartlepool was the first of our local authority areas to move completely onto the new benefit in 2016, and we’ve since helped thousands of customers through the process of claiming UC for the first time.
 

Universal Credit blog series

Universal Credit (UC) has been with us at Thirteen for a few years now. Hartlepool was the first of our local authority areas to move onto the new benefit, and we’ve since helped thousands of customers through the process of claiming UC for the first time.
 

Thirteen e-bulletin April 2019

Ian Wardle, Thirteen Chief Executive e-bulletin

Local Housing Allowance – Part 2

For the majority of our tenants, provided they aren’t under-occupying, the difference will be negligible – Thirteen’s average rent is around £85 per week, so LHA rates for Teesside will still cover most of our properties.
 

Local Housing Allowance – Part 1

The housing world is no stranger to fast-paced change. Despite housing associations (arguably) being private businesses, we are heavily influenced by government direction and currently, that direction is focussed on measures which will reduce the welfare bill. Here, Ian Wardle, Chief Executive at Thirteen, gives some more information about the issue, and in particular the Local Housing Allowance:
 

Supported housing

In the Tees Valley, the proportion of our population aged over 65 is above average , and the number of people with limiting long term illnesses is significantly so. This makes supported and sheltered accommodation a vital part of our region’s housing portfolio. Here, Gemma Stockdale, Project Support Officer, gives some more details:
 

Rent freedom

Recently, the National Housing Federation launched a member consultation around their intention to propose that the government should pass the job of rent setting in the social housing sector to the sector itself. Here, Gemma Stockdale, Project Support Officer, gives some more details: