A detailed breakdown of the data can be accessed through these links:
Complaints data 2011 H2 (XLS)
Complaints data 2011 H2 (PDF)
Highlights for 2011 H2
Total overall number of complaints increased by 21% to 2,256,172 in 2011 H2 (Table 2.1 and Figure 1 below).
The main driver for this increase was a rise in the volume of complaints about ‘general insurance and pure protection’ which increased by 49% to 1,280,940 (Table 2.1 and Figure 2 below). Most notably within this product group were the number of complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI) which rose by 85% to 977,510 (Table 2a and Figure 3).
The number of banking complaints were at their lowest level since 2006 H2 at 787,096. This is a 2% decrease on the previous half year and is 13% down on a year ago (Table 2.1 and Figure 2 below). Within banking products, the percentage of complaints about current accounts dropped by 6% and there was a 12% reduction in the percentage of complaints about savings and other banking products (Table 2a and Figure 3). Complaints about credit cards and unregulated loans increased.
There were small reductions in the volume of complaints about decumulation, life and pensions products and investments (Table 2.1 and Figure 2 below). The volume of complaints about endowments fell by 6% and the volume of complaints about investment bonds fell by 12% (Table 2a and Figure 3).
Aggregate Complaints Data Charts (Figure 1, 2 & 3) (pdf)
The volume of complaints about PPI account for many of the other highlights in this data:
- The number of complaints to banks and building societies increased by 29% in 2011 H2 to 1,660,578 (Table 2.2).
- Overall, complaints about ‘advising, selling and arranging’ increased by 69% to 1,093,684 (Table 2.3). 1,002,523 equating to 92% of these complaints were about general insurance and pure protection products (Table 1).
- The percentage of general insurance and pure protection complaints closed within 8 weeks decreased from 72% in 2011 H1 to 43% in 2011 H2 with the total percentage falling from 86% to 64% (Table 3.2). This reflects the temporary extension to the complaints handling time limit rules which was granted to a small number of firms, allowing them more than 8 weeks to handle their backlog of PPI complaints.
- The total number of closed complaints increased by 55% to 2,429,166 (Tables 2.4 and 2.5). This was mainly caused by the number of closed general insurance and pure protection complaints which increased to 1,440,441 (Table 2.5).
- The percentage of upheld complaints increased from 51% in 2011 H1 to 60% in 2011 H2 (Table 4.1). Again this was mainly caused by the upheld general insurance and pure protection complaints increasing from 53% to 69%.
- The total amount of redress paid increased from £411m in 2011 H1 to £2,250m in 2011 H2 (Table 5.1). Within this, the increase in redress paid for general insurance and pure protection to £2,102m will also have been affected by firms resolving the PPI complaints that were placed on hold during the judicial review in H1 2011.
For more information please go to the ‘About the current aggregate complaints data’ page.
