Exclusive: 350,000 claims revealed at astl meeting

At the Association of Short Term Lenders (astl) meeting last week it was revealed that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received more than 350,000 complaints up until the end of December 2012.

This is more than was predicted for the year with three more months to go until the FOS’s year end.

It was also revealed that the FOS had to take on 1,000 new staff and is looking to take on another 1,000 and lease a new building just to deal with the number of PPI complaints.

The four main banks make up most of the complaints while bridging and short term lending make up very few.

Peter Bristow, Outreach Manager from the Financial Ombudsman Service, was speaking to members and associates of the astl at its quarterly meeting last Thursday, 7th March. 

Bristow revealed that the socio-demographics were changing in terms of whom complaints were received from, with an increasing number of complaints coming from people C2DE category, who traditionally are less likely to be aware of where to turn if they have a money-related problem.

A more welcome revelation was that the number of complaint cases which could be submitted to the Ombudsman without charge to the companies being complained about was to increase from three to 25.

This means that the vast majority of financial businesses will never have to pay a case fee, as the main banking groups that make up the bulk of the Ombudsman’s workload pay the majority of its costs.

Bristow also described what the FOS does. He said: “The Ombudsman was set up to provide consumers and businesses with an alternative to the courts. We work with both parties to help resolve often complex or entrenched disputes – and unlike the courts, we’re able to make decisions on what is fair and reasonable to both sides in each individual case.”

Benson Hersch, Chief Executive of the astl, added: “We would like to thank Peter for coming to present to the members, it was a very revealing talk both in terms of the way the FOS works, and with regards to the number of complaints that are handled.

“I know many financial services companies will welcome a greater number of free cases before they are charged, especially with the claims management company culture that we have at the moment.”