Grievances over PPI keep hotline buzzing every day

Review: Over 321,283 customers phone financial services ombudsman

The UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) handled nearly 1.4million inquiries, or nearly 4,000 a day, during the 2016-17 tax year.

Britain’s official expert in sorting out problems with financial services said in its latest annual review it took on a total of 321,283 new complaints.

Payment protection insurance (PPI) continued to dominate much of its activity, accounting for 53% of all new complaints, and FOS said it was still receiving thousands of new cases a week.

“The important thing is to speak up if you’re struggling”

Elsewhere, the service saw a rise in the number of complaints about everyday financial products.

Complaints about extended warranties grew by more than 40%, while those related to debit cards and mobile phone insurance were up by more than 50%. Consumer credit complaints rocketed by nearly 90%, with payday loans causing a 230% rise.

FOS received 10,529 new complaints about payday lending from people from all walks of life.

Complaints about packaged bank accounts more than halved to 20,284.

Excluding PPI, FOS said it resolved 83% of new complaints within three months – an improved response rate from the 66% seen in 2015-16.

Overall awareness of the service remained high, with nearly nine in 10 people having some knowledge, FOS said.

Chief executive and chief ombudsman Caroline Wayman said: “This annual review shows vividly how the times we’re living in affect how we feel about and manage money.

“Through keeping up our focus on working flexibly, we resolved the problems people brought to us more quickly than ever.”

She added: “Whilst PPI continues to make up a large proportion of the complaints we see, the most striking story this year has been the rise in complaints we’ve seen from people having trouble with credit.

“For example, we’ve seen around three times last year’s volumes of complaints about payday loans.

“It’s clear that financial difficulties and financial exclusion remain significant challenges for many people.

“The important thing is to speak up if you’re struggling. Money is often very complicated – and our job is to unravel what’s happened and find a fair way to put things right by looking at individual complaints.”

FOS was set up by parliament to resolve individual complaints between financial businesses and their customers.

It can look into problems involving most types of money matters – from payday loans to pensions, pet insurance to PPI. If it decides someone has been treated unfairly, it has legal powers to put things right.