FOS: General insurance complaints fall by 7.9%

The number of general insurance complaints fell by 7.9% to 12,085 in the nine months to December 2013 compared with the same period in 2012, according to the latest figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

The most complained about class of general insurance (excluding PPI) between April and December 2013 was car and motorcycle – although the total number of complaints fell 7.6% to 5,357. And in the last quarter of 2013 there was a 12.3% reduction in the amount of claims when compared to the same period in 2012.

The proportion of complaints upheld by the FOS for car and motorcycle in the nine months to December was 40%.

Complaints rose at their steepest rate in the last nine months to December for business protection insurance which went up by 65.4% from 130 (2012) to 215 (2013) with 40% upheld in 2013.

PPI complaints went up by 33.5% from 244,873 (Apr-Dec 2012) to 326,977 in the nine months to 31 December 2013. But in the last quarter of 2013 complaints fell by 45.3% compared with Q3 of 2012.

The number of commercial property insurance complaints also went up by 22.2% from 351 (Apr-Dec 2012) to 429 in the last nine months of 2013.

In commercial vehicle insurance, complaints increased slightly by 0.5% from 381 to 383 in the same period. But in the last three months of 2013 the complaints had dropped by 5.8% when compared with the same quarter in 2012.

Complaints fall in over half of GI classes

Complaints in general insurance fell in just over half of all business classes over the nine months to December 2013 when compared with the same period in 2012. And in the last quarter of 2013 complaints fell in nine out of 13 classes of insurance when compared with the same period in 2012.

The biggest drop came from complaints about specialist insurance which fell by 56.7% from 649 to 281 in the nine months to December. Mobile phone insurance complaints also dropped by 24.1% in the same period.

An FOS spokesman said: “It is good news that fewer complaints about insurers have been referred to the ombudsman so far this year. However, the issues that are being complained about continue to be in areas were the ombudsman has a long standing approach, suggesting that there is still much work to be done.”