1,000 Britons a week complain about being mis-sold payment protection

More than 1,000 people a week are pursuing mis-selling claims about payment-protection insurance (PPI) after having their complaints rejected by the banks, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) revealed yesterday. The ombudsman said it was receiving some 200 complaints every working day relating to the insurance cover from people unhappy with the way providers had dealt with their complaint.

The FOS had expected to receive around 46,000 complaints about PPI this year, but figures now suggest the total will be far higher than this.

The ombudsman has repeatedly criticised the banks and other PPI providers for the way they handle complaints, claiming many are failing to investigate them properly. The service is upholding more than 80 per cent of the complaints it receives about PPI, which is the single most complained-about product.

The FOS has typically called on offending firms to pay four-figure compensation sums to consumers, although in some cases the figure has been as high as £25,000.

Yet it is thought that tens of thousands of customers may be missing out on compensation because they fail to pursue their claims through the FOS. Figures from the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), show that firms received about 260,000 complaints from consumers relating to PPI during 2009, but only 41,000 were subsequently referred to the ombudsman.

PPI covers debt repayments if the policy holder is unable to work because of an accident, illness or if they lose their job. But the product has been criticised after research found it had been mis-sold to many who would never be able to claim on it, while others felt pressurised into taking it out with loans or credit cards.

Vera Cottrell, of the consumer group Which?, said: "Banks are wasting everyone's time by automatically rejecting so many complaints. The vast majority of cases should not have to go to the ombudsman."