The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received fewer private medical insurance (PMI) and dental insurance-related complaints from October to December than the previous three months, but upheld 5% more.
Data for third quarter of the Ombudsman’s 2022/23 financial year showed it received 297 new PMI and dental complaints, down from 354 in Q2.
However, 20% of these complaints were upheld over the quarter.
This pattern was repeated for term assurance products as FOS received fewer complaints – 172 compared to 195 in the previous quarter – but a higher percentage were upheld – 15% compared to 12%.
Income protection complaints were also down to 117 from 156 in Q2, with the same percentage (17%) of complaints upheld in both quarters.
Meanwhile critical illness cover complaints data was largely unchanged, with 117 complaints compared to 118 and 10% upheld compared with 11%.
In the whole of life assurance (non-reviewable) product category, 126 complaints were received, up from 118 in the previous quarter and 19% of these complaints were upheld, compared with 16% in Q2.
For whole of life assurance (reviewable), 128 case were received, down from 145 in the previous quarter but 30% of cases were upheld up from 19% in Q2 of the financial year.
Finally, touching on pre-paid funeral plans, FOS received three more complaints – 18 compared to 15 but upheld fewer cases – less than 10% as opposed to 30% in the second quarter of the financial year.
Overall, the 803 reported for all health and protection insurance products formed less than 2% of the regulator’s case load.
FOS received 68,342 new enquiries and 41,303 new complaints about financial products over the quarter.
On average it upheld 35% of the complaints resolved in this quarter. The most complained-about product was current accounts, followed by credit cards.
