Spike in complaints to Ombudsman deemed unacceptable by experts
by Stephen Hunt, 27th May 2011
The banks at the heart of the PPI mis-selling scandal have been
roundly criticised for their sluggish response to claims for
compensation, which has led to a 26% rise in complaints made to the
Financial Ombudsman Service.
Cases are referred to the Ombudsman when banks refuse to pay
compensation; it rules in favour of the claimant 3 out of
4 times.
Michael Pilgrim, a financial claims expert, said: "It is totally
unacceptable for banks now to claim that they cannot cope with a
backlog of complaints they created by putting cases on hold.
"After being mis-sold useless insurance policies, customers then
had their compensation claims left on hold for months. So they now
deserve a swift resolution to this whole debacle."
Another expert has forecast this upsurge in complaints only
accounts for a small proportion of the potential claims which could
be made.
Such is the volume of claims which banks are expected to have to
deal with, they have been forced to take on extra staff and set
aside large sums of money. Even so, it could take a very long time
for the banks to get round to contacting everyone who is eligible
for compensation, which means using a claims company could be a
more expeditious approach.
PPI, which stands for Payment Protection Insurance, is supposed
to be a safety net enabling customers to make payments if they fall
into financial difficulty. However, it has been mis-sold to
millions of people who either did not qualify for it or were not
even aware they were paying for it, and after losing a recent court
case, the banks are now legally obliged to recompense anyone to
whom they mis-sold PPI.
I you think you have grounds for claiming mis-sold PPI, discover how we can
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