Consumers ‘may not get PPI replies until the summer’

SOME CONSUMERS who have previously complained about payment protection insurance (PPI) may get a final response from businesses this summer, about a year after the deadline for registering a claim with firms.

The deadline for customers to complain to firms about PPI misselling was August 29, 2019.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which has been clearing up PPI mis-selling disputes where consumers and firms cannot agree, said: “Businesses have reported they were working through millions of customer inquiries and complaints, and have told the FCA that it will be summer 2020 before they’re able to give some customers a response. Consumers then have up to six months to complain to us.”

In the past, the insurance was often added on to loans and credit agreements by firms without people wanting or needing it.

The ombudsman service said it had been encouraging consumers to wait for businesses to respond, despite this taking longer than the usual eight-week response window that firms have, “as it’s likely they’ll get an answer more quickly this way”.

The ombudsman service, which published its 2019/20 annual complaints data for financial products yesterday, said it had received about half the number of PPI complaints than had been anticipated.

Some 122,153 new PPI complaints were received, although the service had anticipated handling up to 250,000 new cases – “reflecting the significant amount of complaints the deadline might generate”.

Some 271,468 new complaints were received in 2019/2020, compared with 388,392 in 2018/19. Caroline Wayman, chief ombudsman and chief executive of the FOS, said unhappy customers can use the ombudsman service for free.