The number of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaints referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service has jumped by almost 60 per cent over the last three months.
Data published by the FOS shows that the FOS received 30,301 PPI complaints between October and December, an increase of 57 per cent from the 19,259 PPI complaints in the three months to September. While the number of complaints on PPI have increased over the quarter, the proportion being upheld has fallen from 92 per cent in the three months to September to 68 per cent.
The FOS is expecting to receive 165,000 new PPI complaints in 2012/13, accounting for 60 per cent of new cases.
Between October and December 59 per cent of portfolio management complaints were upheld.
Complaints about unit-linked investment bonds stayed relatively flat at 194, with 59 per cent of complaints upheld.
The FOS is funded by a mixture of case fees and an industry levy. It is currently consulting on introducing a supplementary case fee from April of £350, on top of the standard case fee of £500, for each PPI complaint where businesses have more than 25 PPI complaints referred to the FOS each year.
FOS chief executive Natalie Ceeney says: “The challenges of our PPI workload are unprecedented. Initial feedback from stakeholders suggests that most believe we will continue to receive substantial volumes of PPI complaints for another two or three years. This seems a sensible basis on which to plan, given the size of the PPI market, the number of PPI complaints made direct to banks and other financial businesses last year alone, and the potential extent of detriment to consumers.”
Separately the FOS is also consulting on increasing the number of free cases small firms have each year before paying the £500 case fee from three to 25 a year. If agreed this would come into effect in April 2013.
Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of financial claims specialist BrunelFranklin.com says that the public are slowly becoming wiser to the tactics of mis-selling, but that a lot of the damage is already done: “It is important to realise that we may all unwittingly have taken out PPI during the years when lenders were offering a seemingly endless line of credit in the form of loans and credit cards in particular. It costs nothing to check your paperwork for insurances that you may not even know you are paying for. PPI per se is not a bad product, however the onus is on the vendor to ensure the product is the best for your needs at the time of sale. If the best product for your needs was not offered, or if you were unaware of the true cost, for example, you may have grounds for a refund.”
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