1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

[Amethyst]

Formal Figures acquired by Legal Beagles from the FSA under the Freedom of Information Act as of 17th June 2009.


The total number of relevant charges complaints put on hold since 27 July 2007: 1,125,853;


The number of relevant charges complaints where a complainant had claimed to be in financial difficulty: 178,018;

Cases where sufficient information was available for the case to be assessed and it was decided the customer was not in financial difficulty. Based on information provided by the 10 monthly reporting firms (this includes some estimated figures), since July 2008 there have been 32,329 such cases) The remainder are Cases where the firm has not yet made a decision accepting or rejecting a claim of being in financial difficulty; and Cases that are no longer considered to be pending (i.e. are not actively being worked on or chased) due to the customer not providing sufficient information for the case to be assessed.


The number of relevant charges complaints where the firm accepted a claim that the complainant was in financial difficulty: 52,797.

[michael]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

The total number of relevant charges complaints put on hold since 27 July 2007: 1,125,853;

Is this just the number of claims that are on hold with the banks, ie the number of claims stayed at court is additional to this figure

[Tools]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

No Michael, this is the total number of bank charge related complaints including those stayed in the Courts which we previously discovered was around the 65,000 mark.

We will be releasing this information to the press as we did the 65,000 figure, so keep your eyes peeled in the next few days.

[EXC]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

What is the period between the previous figure (nearly 1m) and the latest figure of 1125853 ? As it's increased by about 12%.

[Tools]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

March/April of this year, the figure was 973,000

BBC NEWS | Business | One million in bank charge logjam

[natweststaffmember]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

Stop it, I will get embarrassed

[EXC]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

March/April of this year, the figure was 973,000

BBC NEWS | Business | One million in bank charge logjam

You mean the 973000 figure was claims made up to March/April? And when does the 1125853 figure go up to?

[Tools]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

June/July I assume, whatever day they calculated the response to the FOI.

[EXC]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

I think it's worth establishing exactly what the period is between the the 2 figures as as far as I can see that's the story. It seems that over a appx 4 month period, 153,000 odd complaints were made - a staggering 38,250 per month.

Compare this with the 973,000 figure in the period from the waiver to April/March this year - a 20 month period - it gives us a rate of 48,659 per month.

Allowing for the fact that the 973,000 will include several hundred thousand already in the system at the end of July 07 (do you have that figure?) it indicates that the number of complaints about the relevant charges has actually risen over the last few months, making for a snappy ''Bank Charge Complaints On The Increase''.

[Tools]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

I agree, I also think that the figures have been more closely looked at and that they may have unearthed some "missing" figures from the previous 973,000. Also attached to the FOI reply is some very interesting documents, I will let Ame explain in more detail as I am about to leave and wont be back on until later.

[EXC]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

The response puts the 1125853 figure as up to May this year.

Yes seen the documents - very interesting and very encouraging.

[Amethyst]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

I'll sort through the documents and post them up. I do think this is positive on the eve of the waiver review. I didn't actually ask them again for hardship figures so am quite encouraged by their response today. The visits to 7 of the firms involved in the waiver appear to be comprehensive.

Nattie has been doing some good work in the background with MP Tom Clarke too, I expect he will be making some sort of noise around the 26th July.

No updates on the transcripts yet - and no negative or positive info regarding the handing down of the HoL judgment - seems Octobers likely but July still isnt ruled out.

Anyway - kids play was ace lol.

[EXC]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

One the subject of Freedom of Information, the OFT yesterday published their board minute summary for June in which it gave figures of FoIA requests for the last year:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/board/June09.pdf

Freedom of Information Act

Internal procedures have been changed to improve the process. In addition, more guidance has been drafted, know-how sessions are being held and compulsory desk-top training is being rolled out. The Board was informed of the increase in FoIA requests: 171 requests had been made so far this year compared to 126 over the same period last year. This increase reflects a general trend across government. There have been eight requests for internal review since August. The Board requested that a record is kept of the cost to the OFT

of dealing with FoIA requests.

[enaid]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

I was not surprised at the figures about the number of claims on hold.

What did surprise and shock me was the figures for those in, or near to financial hardship.


The number of relevant charges complaints where a complainant had claimed to be in financial difficulty: 178,018;

Cases where sufficient information was available for the case to be assessed and it was decided the customer was not in financial difficulty. Based on information provided by the 10 monthly reporting firms (this includes some estimated figures), since July 2008 there have been 32,329 such cases) The remainder are Cases where the firm has not yet made a decision accepting or rejecting a claim of being in financial difficulty; and Cases that are no longer considered to be pending (i.e. are not actively being worked on or chased) due to the customer not providing sufficient information for the case to be assessed.


The number of relevant charges complaints where the firm accepted a claim that the complainant was in financial difficulty: 52,797. __________________
Even the satisfied ones are a far greater number than I expected.


The remainder are Cases where the firm has not yet made a decision accepting or rejecting a claim of being in financial difficulty; and Cases that are no longer considered to be pending (i.e. are not actively being worked on or chased) due to the customer not providing sufficient information for the case to be assessed.
I make this figure then to be over 92,000 still pending, this really shocked me tbh.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: 1,125,853 complaints on hold with the banks under the FSA waiver

This is one of the biggest issues around cases going to the Financial Ombudsman Service....either not providing sufficient information(the "why should I?" approach some people have), no argument for them(they should refund because they are illegal approach) or simply they have not done the hard work(no idea of account number and assumes going straight to FOS will get a full refund). However, it is not as though there is a factsheet about hardship for people to follow either.
I'm not sure whether anything will come from the MP convos but sometimes things go quiet for a while before anything happens. The Waiver should be updated by Friday of this week since the FSA Waiver is due for renewal next Sunday(and even the FSA hate working saturdays as much as I do ).

This might be the interesting part with regards to acceptance of hardship. I am not sure if the FSA have figures of how many cases where a decision was made by the bank was overturned/increased refund by the FOS..would they have that?