A victim of the lack of action from FOS is Gavin H. Here he is on his experience

Mercilessly mocking the Financial Ombudsman Service, the BBCs ‘The Naked Week’ took the view that if you didn’t laugh you’d cry. It’s worth a listen for any complainant referred by a financial business and hopeful of redress: https://lnkd.in/es8CUXBS

It is good that FOS is publishing the feedback from its users but the feedback does not make for good reading either for FOS, the taxpayers who fund it or those relying on it for restitution

No one I’ve met who has used FOS find their people anything less an polite and helpful. But people need more than politeness, they need help and this review summary tells us that they are not getting the help they need.

This blog has well over 10,000 articles on it, around 60 are about FOS and the majority are about the treatment of steelworkers and the SIPPs they were transferred into after leaving the British Steel Pension Scheme.

But I also look at the treatment of offshore investors in Blackmore and other scams.

Whether it is Alistair Rush or Angie Brooks or Gavin H standing up for consumers, the theme is the same, FOS is letting down consumers and needs a radical overhaul.

If you don’t believe me, type FOS into the search box at the top of this blog and see the consistency of the problems FOS has had , problems that have been passed back to the people it is supposed to be protecting.

My very good friend Derek Scott is currently defending the Financial Ombudsman Service in the comments on this blog in discussions with Gavin who is not getting satisfaction on restitution of money not allocated to his workplace pension due to an admitted cock up.

I did use the FOS a few times in the past as a trustee of some executive pension plans from the 1990s.

I would have given them 3-4 stars. They helped in the end, but took their time about it. At least those were my experiences.

I generally preferred getting a third party involved when unable to resolve a disagreement by two-way discussion or correspondence. A third perspective can help.

I also agree with the sentiment running through Henry’s coverage of your saga (scandal?) that individual members shouldn’t have to go through such angst to get redress.

But the problem for FOS is not the occasional EPP but the deluge of complaints about workplace pensions and SIPPs. We have moved on from a pensions world to a world of savings plans. This tweet is now four years old and features on this blog where John Pattison explains his problem.

The reality is that the job FOS has is just too big for it, the pension system too large and the resource at its disposal too small.

We received 16,276 new complaints about investments and pensions in 2021/22. The most complained-about product was personal pensions and the most complained-about issue was administration or customer service. Read more on our website: https://t.co/XOBoDVjZAb pic.twitter.com/2NdaSN6eIi

— Financial Ombudsman Service (@financialombuds) July 11, 2022

No one thinks ill of those who work in FOS, it is just that FOS is not currently fit for the purpose it has been given.