The Monetary Ombudsman Service (FOS) has made headway tackling its case backlog, however has seen client satisfaction ranges drop.

The ombudsman resolved 99% of complaints it might progress that had been older than 18 months by 31 March, marginally decrease than the 100% it had focused to resolve, in response to its annual report.

Throughout 2021/22 the FOS printed an Motion Plan following criticism of its efficiency lately.

Baroness Zahida Manzoor CBE, chairman of the FOS, mentioned: “We made good progress through the yr throughout all 5 areas of the Motion Plan and we achieved plenty of service enhancements, resolving extra circumstances than we obtained and performing effectively towards a spread of different metrics.

“Our efficiency noticed us chopping our backlog of unallocated circumstances by over half and making vital progress in offering solutions on our oldest circumstances. However we recognise that our clients are nonetheless ready too lengthy for a solution, and the progress we’ve made solely takes us to date.”

Client satisfaction with the FOS dropped for each upheld and non-upheld circumstances.

Client satisfaction for non-upheld circumstances dropped to 36%, compared to a goal of 45% and 43% in 2020/21.

For upheld circumstances client satisfaction dropped 2% to 88% (2020/21: 90%). The uphold charge for the yr was 39%.

Companies’ satisfaction with the FOS rose over the identical interval to 80% (2020/21: 72%).

Abby Thomas, chief ombudsman on the FOS, mentioned the drop in client satisfaction scores was resulting from the ombudsman’s prioritisation of older circumstances.

She mentioned: “Our deal with closing the oldest circumstances as a precedence has meant that the median time to resolve each case closed in 2021/22 was 6.4 months, above the 4.2 goal we had set. This contributed to deteriorating client satisfaction scores, most importantly the place we present in favour of companies, the place client satisfaction dropped from 43% to 36% towards a goal of 45%. Scores from customers whose circumstances had been upheld additionally decreased, however by a
a lot smaller margin, from 90% to 88% towards a goal of 90%.

“We’re dissatisfied to have seen any falls in our client satisfaction scores, however we accepted it was inevitable if we prioritised older circumstances as the appropriate factor to do, whatever the quick‑time period impression on efficiency figures.”

In its 2021/22 monetary yr, the FOS obtained 165,263 complaints compared to the 170,000 it had anticipated.

Nevertheless, the FOS resolved fewer than the 220,000 complaints it anticipated to over the course of the yr. It resolved 218,740 complaints.

The ombudsman has obtained 4,342,601 complaints because it was established in 2001, 4,274,384 of which have been resolved.

Consciousness of the ombudsman amongst most of the people elevated over the course of the yr, with 91% of individuals having some consciousness of the FOS compared to its goal of 80% (2020/21: 90%).

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