A CREDIT union which was set up almost 20 years ago in Glasgow for NHS staff has handed out a record number of loans this year across Scotland.

From May 1 to August 1, more than £3million was given out to 2600 members, helping staff avoid resorting to payday loan companies and high-cost bank overdrafts.

Staff helped included one employee who was being threatened with eviction from her family home.

The Glasgow NHS Employees’ Credit Union was set up in 1998 by a group of employees at the former Southern General Hospital.

It now has 14 full-time staff, based in Dava Street in Govan, who provide financial services to NHS employees and their family members across the whole of Scotland and the North of England.

From May to August this year, low-interest loans totalling £3,038,795 had been issued to 2665 members, the credit unions most successful year yet.

A total of 639 more NHS staff joined, taking total membership to more than 16,500.

At the start of this financial year, more than £66million had been handed out in loans and members’ savings were almost £17m.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Kelly said: “It’s a source of great pride – and a testament to the superb efforts of all our staff – that we managed to give financial assistance totalling more than £1m to our members in both May and June.

“But what is even better is to hear the individual stories behind these loans.

“For example, the loan that took us through the £1m mark in May helped a member prepare a special celebration for her mum’s 70th birthday.

“We also helped members create their dream wedding; sent some off on the holiday of a lifetime and kept some out of the spiralling misery of high-cost loans.

“Among the debt consolidation loans we issued was one that quite literally saved a member being evicted from her family home.

“We look on ourselves as a financial family – and are delighted to have been able to help so many customers out in this way.”

Although the credit union has members across Scotland and the north of England, most live in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

The union has previously said that most of its members are low paid with 86% of the membership female.

In 2014, proposals to create a dedicated credit union in England were debated by MPs.

Credit unions have traditionally specialised in loans and savings for the less well-off, but are now targeting people of all incomes with revamped products.