The number of new complaints logged with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) fell 34% in 2021/22.

A total of 1,823 new complaints about financial advisers were logged in 2021/22, in comparison to 2,774 complaints in 2020/21.

The proportion of all complaints against financial services firms registered against financial advisers held steady at 1%.

Of 2,150 complaints against financial advisers resolved, 32% were upheld in favour of the client.

The most complained about product area for financial advisers was stocks and shares ISAs, where there were 187 complaints, 31% of which were upheld.

This was closely followed by personal pensions, where there were 182 complaints, 42% of which were upheld.

There were 92 complaints about defined benefit transfers (not to a SIPP), 52% of which were upheld, and 38 claims about transfers to a SIPP where 67% were upheld.

Administration and customer service were the most common resolved complaints with 687 resolved, 29% of which were upheld.

Mis-sale/suitability of advice saw the highest uphold rate with 49% of complaints being resolved in favour of the client.

The number of complaints against financial advisers where the event being complained about happened more than 15 years ago fell slightly to 304 (2020/21: 363). Of these 25% were upheld in favour of the client.

The FOS saw 187 complaints from over 15 years ago that it was unable to consider for reasons such as time limits in place.

Falling victims of scams and issues with customer service and administration were the most complained about wider financial services topics in 2021/22, according to the new FOS data.

Administration and customer service complaints topped the ombudsman’s list with over 35,000 complaints.

Examples included lack of attention to detail and sending personal information to the wrong address.

Complaints about ‘authorised’ scams increased by a fifth to 9,370 in 2021/22.

The ombudsman said it is upholding around three quarters of these ‘authorised’ scam complaints in the consumers’ favour.

The latest FOS data showed that it is starting to make headway against its complaints backlog. The ombudsman received 165,263 new complaints in 2021/22 and resolved 218,749 complaints.

It upheld 38% of the 218,740 complaints, in comparison with 31% on 2020/21.

Of the new complaints, 16,276 were about investments and pensions.

Nausicaa Delfas, interim chief executive and chief ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “Over the past year, the Financial Ombudsman Service continued to help over two hundred thousand customers who had problems with financial businesses on issues across banking, lending, insurance and investments. In this period of economic uncertainty it is more important than ever that where problems do arise, they are addressed quickly. We are here to help to resolve financial disputes fairly and impartially.”

The Financial Ombudsman Service was set up by Parliament in 2000 to resolve individual complaints between financial services firms and their customers.

The Ombudsman launched an action plan to improve its services and operational efficiency in December last year.

It recently proposed changes to its funding model to more accurately reflect the cost of individual cases.