The Financial Ombudsman Service has been forced to recruit 1000 extra workers to deal with the “unprecedented” number of complaints about mis-sold payment protection insurance.
The service raised its workforce to 2500 as it became swamped by complaints about the expensive and often useless loan cover sold by banks, credit card companies and others.
There has been little let up in the number of complaints arriving, according to the service, with the problem worsened by banks’ often unhelpful attitude.
Tony Boorman, deputy chief ombudsman, said that although some businesses “use complaints positively to improve customer service, many continue to frustrate their customers with delays and inconvenience. This has a marked impact on our workload.”
The compensation bill for mis-sold cover is expected to top £15 billion with the Ombudsman taking on a further 245,000 PPI cases since last April, accounting for two-thirds of its total workload.
“Two years after the court ruling confirmed the approach financial businesses should take when handling PPI complaints, it’s disappointing that we’re still seeing significant numbers of unresolved disputes,” Boorman said.
The Ombudsman said it expects to answer 2.2 million consumer enquiries in this financial year compared with 1.3 million a year previously. It is also increasing the fees charged to financial firms when cases are referred to the Ombudsman by £50 to £550.
