Hundreds of people falling victim to romance scams, the Financial Ombudsman Service warns
25 March 2026
Between January 2025 and March 2026, we received over 500 complaints about romance scams.
Today we’ve published our plans and budget for the financial year 2021/22.
Our plans and budget for 2021/22 incorporate feedback from stakeholders following a consultation in December 2020 and January 2021.
Our plans and budget document sets out that, in the year to the end of March 2021, despite the unprecedented impact of Covid-19, we expect to have resolved in excess of 95% of the volume of cases we’d originally planned to in our general casework.
However, the pandemic has also contributed to the substantial increase in the number of new complaints we received in 2020/21 – forecast to be at least 45% higher than expected at the beginning of the 2020/21 financial year.
The plans and budget published today sets out how the service is responding to this, including our plans to bring down waiting times.
Latest news
New measures to modernise and transform the UK redress system
16 March 2026
The Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are strengthening the redress system so consumers get fair and quick compensation when things go wrong, and businesses have more certainty to invest, grow and compete.
The Financial Ombudsman Service urges young drivers to make informed decisions with car insurance
10 March 2026
We are urging young drivers across the UK to make well-informed decisions when taking out car insurance.