“Many complaints were rooted in historic lending and we have heard from thousands of victims of fraud and scams who told us they had wrongly been denied refunds. Current accounts were the most complained about product this year, with consumers having problems with closed or frozen accounts and customer service issues.”
She explained that Covid-19 continued to have a “profound impact”.
“The repercussions of the pandemic continued to be reflected in the volume and wide-ranging nature of the complaints referred to us,” she said.
“We have received more than 300,000 enquiries and opened nearly 200,000 new cases in 2021, including pandemic-related disputes such as consumers seeking refunds for cancelled events and businesses struggling to access emergency loans or insurance.”
Delfas said investment in smarter working tools supported its operations, and it ended the financial year in March having resolved nearly a quarter of a million complaints.
“However, the exceptional demand for the Fos in 2020-21 - overall, we received 90,000 more complaints than we had planned and budgeted for - resulted in a backlog of cases waiting to be allocated to an investigator,” she added.
“Bringing down waiting times and delays is a key priority and we are ahead of our target to clear the backlog, which has nearly halved in the last six months.”
In the 2022-23 financial year, Fos said it expected to receive around 175,000 complaints and resolve more than 200,000 for consumers and businesses.
“We know that behind every complaint we receive there is a person who has had a problem that they cannot get resolved,” she said.
“By delivering our change and improvement programme, we will ensure that consumers receive the best possible service to resolve their complaint quickly and fairly.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
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