On 14 September 2023, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) published its quarterly complaints data for Q1 2023/24.

Every three months, the FOS shares quarterly data and information on the complaints it sees about financial products and services. This includes the number of enquiries and new complaints the FOS has received, as well as the proportion of complaints the FOS resolved in favour of consumers – or ‘upheld’.

This quarters data highlighted the following:

• Overall, the FOS received 73,429 new enquiries and 43,953 new complaints about financial products and services.
• This is an increase on complaints received in the same period last year. The FOS received 35,029 complaints in Q1 2022/23.
• Complaints about buildings, car and motorcycle insurance have reached a combined five-year high, with an increase in complaints about delays in processing and paying insurance claims.
• Current accounts were the most complained about product this quarter, with complaints up by a third compared to the same quarter last year. This rise is due to fraud and scam complaints which also increased by a third in the same period.
• Complaints which were categorised as account closures made up just 5% of current account complaints and this is consistent with the same period last year.
• Travel insurance complaints have doubled in a year – increasing from 504 complaints in the first quarter of 2022/23 to 1,101 in the same quarter this year – the highest Q1 figure for travel insurance complaints in more than a decade.
• There has been a small increase in the percentage of cases upheld year on year. On average, the FOS upheld 37% of the cases it resolved, up from 34% in the same period last year.