The Financial Ombudsman Service plans to keep case fees frozen for another year, it revealed this morning.

The body has proposed that the figure would remain at £550 for 2016/2017 – for the fourth year in a row.

Officials said in a consultation, published today, that the budget for next year would be £223.2m – just £700,000 more than for 2015/16. The FOS is set to budget for expenditure of £264.2m instead of £270.3m.

The FOS report stated: “We plan to freeze our case fee at £550 – the fourth consecutive year it will be at this level. Through minimising costs and increasing efficiency, we’ll put our finances on a sustainable footing in the long term. A key part of this is continuing to develop ways of working that reflect what “quick” and “informal” mean today.

“We also plan to maintain the number of free cases at 25. Although each case is ‘chargeable’, each business outside the group-fee arrangement has 25 ‘free’ cases a year – where a case fee isn’t charged. For the 26th and each subsequent case, we charge £550 once the complaint is resolved.

“Our free-case allowance is intended to ensure that our funding requirements have a fair and proportionate impact for every type of business we cover. It reduces the number of businesses having to pay case fees, so that around 9 in 10 of the businesses whose customers complain to us each year don’t pay any case fees at all.”

Officials emphasised the intended shift to resolve complaints at an earlier stage.

They said this meant using resources differently and thus raised “important questions about whether our current fee arrangements remain fair and sustainable”.

The FOS will have to consider the effect of upcoming changes to the FCA’s complaints-handling rules. From 30 June 2016, businesses will have three working days – rather than one – to provide a summary response to a complaint.

Customers will also be told about their right to refer their complaint to us – meaning we may be contacted at this point.

The report stated: “With all this in mind, we’ll need to review our current fee arrangements. We plan to gather evidence and views about this over the next twelve months and may propose changes for 2017/2018. We’d be interested in any comments or insight you have.”

Reply by 2 February 2016 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 – or write to:
Debbie Enever - 
stakeholder team – consultation responses Financial Ombudsman Service
PO Box 69989
 London
E14 1PR