The volume of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) refund claims continued to increase last year, according to new figures. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s annual report says that PPI complaints accounted for 20% of the new claims in 2010/11. And the FSCS says that it expects to receive a continuing high volume of PPI claims in 2011/12.

Overall the report says the FSCS received 39,499 new claims last year – an increase of 25% on 2009/10. And the scheme paid out a total of £535m in refunds while also delivering faster payouts to depositors.

FSCS chief executive Mark Neale said: ‘‘During 2010/11 the Financial Services Compensation Scheme faced another challenging year of increasing claims volumes and maintained its focus on protecting consumers. We made substantial strides during the year in providing an even better service to consumers and the industry and will be building on this during 2011/12.”

The report also shows that as a result of the higher than expected volume of claims during 2010/11, the cost of running the scheme went over its £32.7m budget to the tune of just over £4m.

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