FOS to add a third more staff as banks swoop to recruit adjudicators for PPI

12 January 2012 | By Natalie Holt

Staff numbers at the Financial Ombudsman Service are to rise by a third and it is having to cope with banks poaching adjudicators to deal with their payment protection insurance complaints.

The FOS plans to boost staff numbers by 35 per cent over the next year from 1,890 to 2,545.

It has seen a surge in PPI complaints while experiencing significantly higher levels of staff turnover, as banks lured FOS contractors with higher pay packages to handle PPI complaints.

The FOS says: “We have found it challenging to compete against the remuneration packages offered by some of those businesses.

“The higher levels of adjudicator turnover during 2011/12 have added to our recruitment and operational challenges.”

In 2012/13, staffing costs are expected to total £149.4m. Overall, the FOS budget is set to leap by 75 per cent from £113.1m for 2011/12 to £197.6m for 2012/13.

The FOS is funded by a mixture of case fees and an industry levy. The ombudsman has frozen the case fee and the industry levy for the third year in a row but says given expected rising costs and inflationary pressures, it is likely that case fees will rise from 2012/13.

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Readers' comments (1)

  • Exasperated Me | 13 Jan 2012 7:19 am

    Contractors are paid up to £275 a day at some banks, £350 per night shift, yes nights!

    FOS is in the wrong place for a start, the cost of staying in London is horrendous, a highly inefficient organisation it is with megalomaniacs at all levels.

    What bothers me is why anyone needs so many of these people, it is a very simple process that someone at a BS beginning with N and bank beginning with B are making very complicated indeed. Why is there such a mess? Why do customers have to complain for a start? Why is 50% being handed over to the claims sharks?

    Well, the banks have never had their sales procedures examined by the reguators have they?

    One outsourcing firm had 300 contractors a couple of years back, now they have over 2,000. They are often former advisers or former FOS, they know how to deal with complaints properly but the banks lay down the law as to policy which has meant their having to examine the same claims a few years later, I suppose it keeps them in the manner to which they are becoming accustomed.

    Those of you who despise this complaints culture should ask why it exists at all.

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