Slow-down in PPI decisions due to Plevin

Latest figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) show a 17 percentage-point drop in the number of PPI cases it upheld between April and June this year to 40%, compared with 57% in the same period the year before.

The Ombudsman put the drop in numbers down to a three-month unexpected delay in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) deciding how the Supreme Court's 'Plevin' ruling would affect rules and guidance it issued to banks – triggering a drop in cases to resolve.

The judgment in November 2014 – known as the 'Plevin ruling' – extended the definition of mis-selling. You can now claim if your provider earned a high level of commission from your PPI and this wasn't made clear to you.

PPI stands for 'Payment Protection Insurance'. It's designed to cover your loan or credit card repayments in the event of an accident, sickness or unemployment – but was frequently mis-sold. We've long campaigned on this, and have had over 6.6 million reclaim template letters downloaded.

For full help and our FREE reclaim tool, see our Reclaim PPI for Free guide.

PPI remains the most complained-about product

Between April and June this year PPI accounted for 53% of all financial product complaints to FOS, with the next-highest individual product being current accounts at 6%.

There were 57,186 enquiries to FOS in this period, which resulted in 42,401 new complaints about PPI.

The PPI deadline's been set for 29 August 2019 – but act ASAP to beat the queue

In March the FCA announced that claims over how PPI was sold must be received by the firm you're complaining to on or before 29 August 2019, or they won't be considered. Complaints received ahead of the deadline will then be allowed to run their course.

The regulator has said it will run a two-year communications campaign, which will be launched on 29 August, to alert consumers to the PPI reclaiming deadline. If you act now you may be able to get ahead of the queue.

See our How to Reclaim PPI for Free guide.