Travel insurance complaints at their highest levels since the pandemic
16 July 2024
Holidaymakers unhappy with their travel insurance have led to rising levels of complaints.
Today, we’ve published data that shows how many complaints we received about financial businesses in the first half of 2023.
Overall, we received a total of 93,114 complaints between 1 January and 30 June 2023. That is significantly higher than the 79,921 complaints we received in the last six months of 2022.
There are several reasons for the increase in complaints. Last month, in our most recent quarterly data, we highlighted that building and motor insurance complaints had hit a five-year high, partly due to insurers delaying in paying out on claims while at the same time contractor availability impacted the speed of repairs.
Banking and credit complaints have also risen substantially with fraud and scam cases making up around half of that increase.
Abby Thomas, Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said:
Financial complaints have risen again, with cases particularly increasing in the banking and insurance sectors.
Given the economic challenges people are facing, it’s more important than ever that they feel protected. Whatever their grievance, consumers should expect fair and reasonable treatment from their provider.
If consumers don’t feel that’s the case, they can ask our free, independent service to investigate their complaint.
In the first six months of this year, we upheld 37% of complaints in the consumers’ favour, compared to 34% in the second half of 2022. We have also published data on funeral planning complaints for the first time.
The headline figures are:
View the half-yearly complaints data.
References to H1 in this notice relates to 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023
References to H2 in this notice relates to 1 July 2022 to 31 December 2022.
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 a free alternative to the courts. It can look into problems involving most types of money matters. It is committed to sharing insight and experience to encourage fairness and confidence in financial services.
16 July 2024
Holidaymakers unhappy with their travel insurance have led to rising levels of complaints.
12 July 2024
Complaints about the banking sector are at their highest level in at least a decade.
10 July 2024
The announcement signals the opening of a new hub in Northern Ireland for the Financial Ombudsman