FIRMS FORCED TO MOVE ON AFTER PPI RUSH

Claims firms have turned to pensions, mortgages and investments since the PPI deadline passed in August.

Analysis of Google Ads data carried out over two weeks shows that the most highly prized search terms around mis-selling were for pensions, mortgages and investments. Firms pay the search engine to appear at the top of searches.

The claims management sector has been criticised for levying high charges for “helping” customers with complaints such as PPI, which customers can often easily do themselves for free. An ad on the search term “PPI claim” now costs just 27p while “mis-sold pension” costs more than £15.

Telegraph Money found one firm that charges almost half of any payout and another whose website contains out-ofdate regulation information. money guru Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert, Britain’s largest consumer website, have said an increase in waiting times means people are left out of pocket for longer.

They have called for the timescale that forces consumers to wait eight weeks before they can escalate their complaints to a mediator such as the FOS to be cut to four weeks at the most.

An FOS spokesman said: “We continue to resolve thousands of PPI complaints a week – and last year we resolved around two thirds of PPI cases within three months. We aim to get complaints resolved as quickly as we can but some cases can take longer than we’d like.”

Although the claims deadline has now passed, consumers who were mis-sold PPI through insufficient information or advice from a firm that has now folded may still be able to get compensation via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, a lifeboat fund. There is no deadline, but claims will only be accepted if the advice that led to mis-selling was received before Jan 14 2005.