Financial Ombudsman Service publishes its plans and budget for 2022/23

Press release Strategic plans and budget

The Financial Ombudsman Service’s plans and budget for 2022/23, published today, sets out our plans to invest in change, reduce the time it takes to resolve cases, to become financially sustainable, and to enable us to deliver a better service for customers.

2022/23 will be about investing to make a step change in the performance of the Financial Ombudsman Service, implementing our Action Plan, and continuing to shorten our queues.

In 2022/23, the Financial Ombudsman:

  • Expects to receive 177,000 complaints and resolve 220,500 complaints. 
  • Continue to ensure it is equipped to respond to complexity and vulnerability in complaints.
  • Invest in a change programme, which includes working with regulatory stakeholders to deliver our Action Plan.

The Financial Ombudsman Service’s 2022/23 budget includes: 

  • A cost base of £291.7 million.
  • An individual case fee of £750. 
  • A compulsory jurisdiction levy expected to raise to £106 million. 
  • A voluntary jurisdiction levy of £700,000.
  • Businesses outside the group-account fee arrangement will get 3 free cases (reduced from 25)
  • Businesses in the group-account fee arrangement will get 15 free cases (reduced from 50)

Nausicaa Delfas, Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said:

In the last financial year, we took significant steps to put the Financial Ombudsman Service on a better path for the future. We published our Action Plan, together with our Periodic Review, and have been driving down our backlog of cases.

In the next financial year, we will be investing to make a step change in performance, by developing our technologies and implementing our new operating model. The changes we make will help deliver a better service for all our customers and will allow the organisation to become financially sustainable for the future.

Notes to editors

About the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service was set up by Parliament to resolve individual complaints between financial businesses and their customers on a fair and reasonable basis, as an alternative to the courts. It can look into problems involving most types of money matters from payday loans to pensions, pet insurance to PPI. It is committed to sharing insight and experience to encourage fairness and confidence in financial services.

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