The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is expecting at least 200,000 claims in 2010 as it anticipates a record year for financial complaints.
The FOS was set up 10 years ago to deal with 30,000 complaints annually from consumers with wide-ranging financial problems.
But this year the organisation expects an annual workload of 200,000 cases after experiencing a major surge in complaints due to the recession, and handles a million phone calls annually from consumers.
Last month the ombudsman said consumer complaints about the banks’ payment protection insurance (PPI) reached record levels. The ombudsman said complaints jumped to 45,000 – 45 per cent up on last year. It is currently deluged with 800 complaints a week over the controversial product.
In response to the hike in complaint levels, the FOS now has in place 900 adjudicators, and over 40 specialist ombudsmen and operates on a £100m budget. In 1999 the FOS employed just 450 people in total.