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Limbo: Scott Stanley has still heard nothing from Lloyds over his claim
The football transfer deadline grabbed headlines last Wednesday, but thousands of consumers chasing compensation for mis-sold insurance were more concerned about another August 31 cut-off.Six banks were given until the end of last month to clear a backlog of 200,000 complaints about payment protection insurance. These had been put on hold while the banks fought – and lost – a legal battle over mis-selling.HSBC has admitted missing its targets
for dealing with claims. Although it has told customers whether a
complaint has been accepted or rejected, it had not sent out fully
worked out offers of compensation to everyone by last Wednesday. It says
final letters should have been posted by today.
And one other of the five banks –
Barclays, Co-operative, Egg, Lloyds and RBS – is also believed to have
missed Wednesday’s deadline. The Financial Services Authority says 97
per cent of claims received a decision on time. Payment of compensation
may take up to a month after a customer accepts an offer.
While these banks all publicly say
they have now cleared the backlog, many customers such as Scott Stanley
have been made to wait to the last minute.

 



Payment protection insurance
Bailed-out NatWest bombarded as PPI claims see complaints soar 75% in six months

After being conned by banks over PPI, millions could lose out on compensation due to unscrupulous claims firms

Scott, 23, borrowed £7,500 from Lloyds
as an 18-year-old to help buy a car. A £900 PPI policy was added, but
Scott later found he was unable to claim on it when he lost his job
during a probationary period. He was told he didn’t qualify because he
was not in a permanent job.
He submitted a claim for mis-selling
last autumn using claims company Investor Compensation, which will take a
25 per cent slice of any compensation. But as Financial Mail reported
in May, his case was one of thousands in limbo. By last Friday he had
still heard nothing.
Scott, a patent clerk from Eltham,
south-east London, says: ‘I want to get this sorted out and move on. I
reckon the bank has waited until the very last minute to decide and then
I’ll get something delivered by tortoise mail.’ Lloyds says: ‘We have
provided a clear response to every customer who has submitted a
complaint to us before May 6. All letters have been sent out to
customers.’
Margaret Cole, interim managing
director of the FSA’s conduct business unit, says: ‘We are encouraged
that most firms have cleared the backlog of complaints received during
the judicial review.’
But this deadline is only the latest
step in a long process that has still left consumers with many questions
(see below). About 400,000 new  claims were submitted in the first half
of this year alone. After clearing the backlog, banks are gradually
returning to the standard process of assessing claims in eight weeks.
Under a timetable agreed with the FSA,
claims that were submitted between April 20  this year – May 6 in the
case of Lloyds – and the end of August must be handled within  16 weeks.
This means that the earliest of these should already have been settled.New
claims received from the start of this month must be assessed within 12
weeks. Claims submitted from next January should be dealt with in eight
weeks.
Barclays has agreed a different
timetable – claims received between August 1 and September 30 will be
handled in 12 weeks, then it will revert to the standard eight weeks.
Payment protection cover should help
to meet monthly payments on loans, credit cards and mortgages if you
stop earning through ill-health or redundancy. The banks earned hundreds
of millions of pounds in commission on this each year. However, many
customers were sold policies where the small print made it virtually
impossible to claim.THE BIG QUESTIONS ANSWERED IF YOU ARE STILL LOOKING FOR JUSTICEWhy have I still not heard anything about my claim?Some of the final letters dispatched for last week’s deadline are still in the post. Customers who took their case to the Financial Ombudsman Serviceafter a lender rejected it may also have to wait longer. The revised timetable agreed with the regulator did not apply to cases already at the FOS, which says these cases have started to be resolved more quickly as banks have given up fighting many claims. But in some cases the FOS is waiting for more information from the customer.How much might I get?Anyone mis-sold PPI should get a refund of the premiums they have paid, plus backdated interest on these at the rate of eight per cent. Where a single premium for PPI was paid upfront and added to the loan the customer took out, the compensation will also reflect any extra interest that was charged on the loan. Under FSA rules, payments should be made ‘promptly’ after a customer has accepted the offer of compensation. This is normally taken to be 28 days. What is all this costing? Data from the FSA last week shows banks paid £215million in compensation for PPI mis-selling in the first six months of this year alone. But these figures pre-date the bulk of the claims backlogbeing settled, and will rise hugely. The banks have set aside almost £7billion to cover claims.How do I submit a claim?Write to the lender or broker who sold you the loan, mortgage or credit card. There is a quick guide o n how to claim and template letters to help you on our sister website thisismoney.co.uk/reclaimppi. The FSA hasproduced a video of tips on how to complain at fsa.gov.uk. All thebanks and the Financial Ombudsman Service stress that there is no need to pay a claims management company to present your case or argue forcompensation. They say that all claims are judged equally. What if I have previously had a complaint rejected?Mis-selling claims are now being judged against new standards. This means some customers whose claims were rejected could be successful if they resubmit their claim.