The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published statistics from the third quarter of 2014/15 financial year. The data shows that the FOS received a total of 74,357 new complaints between October and December 2014, of which 48,516 were complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI). The FOS received around 4,000 PPI complaints each week during this period, compared with a peak of 12,000 in 2013. While the FOS is receiving fewer PPI complaints, it expects the fallout from PPI mis-selling to last for a few years yet. In terms of insurance (excluding PPI), complaints about card protection insurance were upheld in favour of the consumer in 85 per cent of cases; by far the biggest uphold rate.
The FOS also published some case studies on travel insurance, specifically winter sports cover. Consumers often complain to the FOS that they were not told about the particular exclusion the insurer is relying on. In such cases, the FOS will look into how the policy was sold and what information was available to the consumer. As with other types of insurance, a strict application of an exclusion can result in an unfair outcome so the FOS will look at the particular circumstances of the case.
