AFCA announced the news on Monday, confirming that the number of complaints involving financial difficulty is down by nearly 40 per cent.
Almost 70 per cent of the 70,510 complaints made were resolved by agreement and nearly 60 per cent were resolved within 60 days.
Of the complaints, 14 per cent were made about credit card issues including default listings and unauthorised transactions.
Over $240 million in compensation and refunds were secured from the complaints lodged.
“Significantly, complaints involving financial difficulty were down nearly 40 per cent from the numbers we saw the previous year,” AFCA’s Chief Ombudsman, David Locke, said.
“That’s a great outcome and reflects the positive response from government and industry to the impact of COVID.
“However, it’s too early to say we’re out of the woods yet. It may be some months before we know the full impact of the end of government emergency support and assistance from financial firms such as deferred loan repayments. And, of course, we are still living with COVID-19.
“It’s important that consumers and financial service providers continue to work together to resolve issues quickly as they emerge.
“The past 12 months show what’s possible when that happens.”
How many complaints were made to various bodies by the public about Lawyers, Accountants or Politicians?
Australian Super 357 Complaints more than all teh Financial advisor recorded put togeth. Which is still majority of AMP and the old cohort. Professional Adviosrs have always existed and continue to have low complaint numbers. Could AFCA present to APRA and ASIC on these results and what would be a better focus .
https://data.afca.org.au/complaints-by-product this site doesn’t really make it easy to do your own analysis but here are some quick points.
The top 5 areas of complaint for financial advisers add up to 287 complaints, the last one is just 8 complaints. The top 5 for the entire industry ads up to 10,520 complaints. Assuming every other complaint type had at least 1 complaint about an adviser and you end up with approximately 310 complaints or 0.4% of all complaints received.
Fine print at AFCA may suggest if you have complaints about premiums, go away.
I would be interested to see the % of these that were bank instigated service fee refunds, done without any compliant or consultation with client or Adviser? Smokes & mirrors…
This agency is out of business if there are no complaints. Even with fewer complaints, their budget is at risk (something a public servant cannot tolerate). Seems to me they have a conflict of interest.
Wonder how many complaints are required pa to keep current levels of staffig?
AFCA are more pleased with the fees they collected on these complaints compared to the “resolution” in favor of the “poor and vulnerable” consumers they vehemently protect at any cost.
I agree. How is BT able to up its insurance income protection premiums by 50%. AFCA encourage to lodge a complaint after going back to BT first to resolve but are they going to fix this? Who up’s their fees (premiums) by 50% and gives you 3 months warning. Their costs are going up – poor Westpac…. How about everyone elses costs going up or jobs shutting down due to CV19. I am quite jaded by those in these positions actually helping or just trying to look like they are. I’m going to fight this for the little person who can’t afford these hikes. Lets see if AFCA actually helps eh!
Anon, you seem not to be very informed on this issue. All insurers have dramatically increased their premiums, especially on IP policies over the last year or two as a result of interference by government regulation. If you dry up new inflows, the policies simply become less sustainable for existing clients, unless you increase the premiums. If you want to fight this, instead of looking at the insurers which are just pricing as per regulatory requirements, you might want to question those making the rules causing the issue.
Yeah like the government will change their regulations. The only time that will happen is when everyone is demanding a pension from them cause they are broke from these types of costs an dno advisers left to advise them cause their costs are also too high – don’t get me started. How about I just cancel and be done with it then. Let the insurance industry collapse. If it can’t fight the regulators putting up these prices so ridiculously then what makes you think a person on their own can. I am not ill informed I am saying – its not acceptable.
You suggested that we should question the people responsible for making the rules and causing the premium increases – This simple cannot be done because the person responsible for LIF and causing this mess (Kelly O’Dwyer) is no longer a politician, she took a job with a fund manager and left the industry scrambling to survive on life support.
Please somebody give us the % of complaints breakdowns for:
1. Individual Financial Planners (not tied to a big industry fund etc)
2. Mortgage Brokers
3. Industry Funds
3. Retial Funds
4. Lawyers
5. Accountants
6. Real Estate agents etc
this would be very insightful!!!
cheers
Doctors and regulators should be added to this list.