Legal challenge to PPI deadline thrown out

Claims management firm We Fight Any Claim unsuccessfully applied for a judicial review of the time-bar on Payment Protection Insurance claims, which was set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and has now been told it will not be able to appeal.

The legal challenge came after the FCA set a final deadline of 29 August 2019 for consumers to reclaim mis-sold PPI. Payment Protection Insurance or PPI is designed to cover your loan or credit card repayments in the event of an accident, sickness or unemployment – but was frequently mis-sold.

MoneySavingExpert.com would NEVER suggest using a claims firm to reclaim PPI – see our Reclaim PPI for Free guide for how to do it yourself. But MSE founder Martin Lewis has previously warned the reclaim deadline is a mistake and puts the protection of the financial industry ahead of consumers.

If you've been mis-sold PPI, the clock is now ticking. With the regulator spending millions to advertise the 29 Aug 2019 reclaim deadline it'll likely jam up the system, so act now. See Reclaim PPI for Free.

'It's just very, very sad'

A judicial review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body, so the way the decision has been made – such as the FCA's PPI deadline decision. We Fight Any Claim was concerned at the shortness of the time limit, and said people who were sold PPI should have been written to.

The firm's legal advisor Mark Davies said: "It's just very, very sad for people who are never going to get the money that was taken.

"The FCA says 64 million policies were sold, but we think that's an underestimate. The vast bulk of people haven't claimed, and huge numbers of them were mis-sold without knowing, and now they will never get the chance to claim."

The FCA said the decision made by the Court of Appeal is final and cannot be further reviewed or appealed.

We're waiting to see the documentation from the Court of Appeal as to why the appeal was rejected.