Staff numbers at the Financial Ombudsman Service are to rise by a third and it has to cope with banks poaching adjudicators to deal with their Payment Protection Insurance complaints.

The FOS plans to boost staff numbers by 35 per cent over the next year from 1,890 to 2,545. It has seen a surge in PPI complaints while experiencing significantly higher levels of staff turnover, as banks lured FOS contractors with higher pay packages to handle PPI complaints.

The FOS says: “We have found it challenging to compete against the remuneration packages offered by some of those businesses. The higher levels of adjudicator turnover during 2011/12 have added to our recruitment and operational challenges.”

The FOS is funded by a mixture of case fees and an industry levy. The ombudsman has frozen the case fee and the industry levy for the third year in a row but says given expected rising costs and inflationary pressures, it is likely that case fees will raise from 2012/13.

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of leading financial claims company, Brunel Franklin, said that the amount of people who have currently lodged an application for a PPI refund is the tip of the iceberg. “We are seeing steady growth in PPI refunds and the trend is set to continue,” said Sally. What we know is that many millions of policies are in existence and it appears that a large proportion may have been mis-sold. Therefore it is imperative that people check the small print of their loan and other credit agreements, to see if they unknowingly have PPI.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51.