Putting things right

Usually, we’ll tell you to put the customer back in the position they’d have been in if things hadn’t gone wrong.

That can mean awarding money – for example, paying an insurance claim, or refunding a charge. We might specify the amount we are asking you to pay. Or we might ask you to work out the right amount of money to pay your customer.

We may tell you to do something that doesn’t involve money such as correcting information on a credit file or reinstating a no-claims discount. We may also tell you to calculate and pay interest on top of – or as part of – any payment we recommend.

You can read more information about types of award, award limits and calculating interest in our guidance on paying compensation.

A mistake can affect your customer practically or emotionally, as well as financially. For this reason, we can award fair compensation for any of the following: 

• distress 
• inconvenience 
• pain and suffering 
• damage to reputation 

We might award this if we feel your customer faced obstacles or difficulties that could have been avoided if you’d handled things differently.  

If your customer accepts what we've said about resolving the complaint, you should comply promptly with the award or direction.

When we write to the customer to tell them about an award or direction,  we will tell them that you will be in touch promptly  to settle the complaint.  So it’s important you take steps to arrange settlement with your customer as soon as possible and within four weeks at the most. 

• Specified money, interest and costs awards (such as compensation for distress and inconvenience or financial loss) should be quite straightforward to arrange. We expect the customer to be paid as soon as possible. We do not expect this type of payment to take more than four weeks to arrange and pay. 

• Money awards requiring a calculation can be more complex, and might take longer to arrange and pay. If you need more detail from your customer to assist you with a calculation, or any third parties, contact them as soon as possible and keep them informed about how long you expect it to take. 

• Directions, such as reconsidering a claim, paying a claim or changing or updating information on a credit file, should be dealt with as quickly as possible. Remember the customer may have already been waiting for some time during the original claim or complaint handling process.  

If at any point you think it might take more than four weeks to fulfil the direction, you should make sure you contact your customer so that they understand the next steps and when they can expect to receive payment or hear from you next.  

If you don’t pay an award or take the required action after a final decision

If your customer contacts us to let us know you haven’t complied with a final decision within four weeks, we will contact you and ask you to provide a meaningful update on your progress. 

If you don’t pay the award or respond to us, or provide a reason why settlement cannot be made within the next 14 days, we may decide to notify the FCA so they can take further action if appropriate.  

We will also provide your customer with information about how to legally enforce a final decision so, if it becomes necessary, they can take action on this through the courts.  

We understand there will sometimes be issues outside of your firm’s control that might mean an award takes longer to comply with, but its important you keep your customer up to date about this and when you expect to be able to pay or carry out what’s been asked of you so that further action isn’t taken unnecessarily