photo: Linda Costelloe Baker

The Independent Assessor

I am appointed by the board of the Financial Ombudsman Service to take an independent view on whether the Ombudsman Service provided a reasonable service during its investigation into a complaint. A service complaint is about the practical handling of a case and it’s not about the decision on whether a complaint should be upheld.

You can complain to me about the practical handling of your case if you are the person who made a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and if you are the financial business which was the subject of a complaint.

I have Terms of Reference which set out some rules, summarised as follows:

First steps: 1 and 2

If you want to complain about the service provided by the Financial Ombudsman Service you need to complain to the Ombudsman Service before you can contact me and it needs to have time to reply at a senior level. Service covers the practical handling of a case, such as administration and following the correct process.

Send your complaint to the team manager, quoting the reference in the top left hand corner of Financial Ombudsman Service letters. If you are not satisfied by the team manager’s reply, write to the Head of Casework, using the same reference number.

The Ombudsman Service says that it should resolve service complaints within 20 working days. You need to allow time for the Ombudsman Service to respond to your complaint and tell you that it has completed its own internal procedures.

You have 3 months from the date of the Ombudsman Service’s final email or letter to ask me to look into your complaint.

Contact me: step 3

When you have the Ombudsman Service’s final response to your service complaint, you can write to me at

The Independent Assessor
PO Box 35738
London
E14 9YU
or email me at
independent.assessor@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

I use a PO Box to make sure my mail is kept completely separate from mail going to the Ombudsman Service.

When you write to me, please let me know what you think is wrong with the way your case was handled. That means that I will be able to concentrate on what bothered you most. Don’t worry if you are not sure what counts as a service complaint because I will let you know what I can, and cannot, review. You do not need to send me any copy papers because I will examine the complete Ombudsman Service case file and check its electronic case records.

What happens next?

If the Ombudsman Service has not completed its investigation into a complaint about a financial services business, I need to check if there are any exceptional circumstances which mean that I should review your service complaint straightaway. If I decide that there are no exceptional circumstances, I will let you know and tell you my reasons. You will be able to contact me again once the Ombudsman Service has closed its investigation.

If I tell you that I will review your service complaint straightaway I will confirm the complaints that I will comment on. I will explain if you have made complaints that I cannot look into. I ask the Ombudsman Service to let me have its case file and its comments on your service complaints. It takes around 2 weeks for the file to get to me and all being well I will send you my review in around 3 to 4 weeks time.

My review – opinion and recommendations

After I have examined the Ombudsman Service’s case file and records, I write to you with a summary of the main points of the investigation and comments on the service complaints you asked me to look into. I say whether I think the Ombudsman Service did a reasonable job and followed its normal processes.

If I think there were problems, I may make recommendations that apply to your particular case, for example

I make a recommendation in around half of the cases I review. The Ombudsman Service will write to you if it accepts my recommendations.

What if the Ombudsman Service does not accept my recommendations?

If the chief ombudsman does not accept one of my recommendations, I refer the matter to the board of the Financial Ombudsman Service. The board will normally decide on its response at its next meeting, usually within a month. If the board decides not to comply with a recommendation it will tell you and tell me why it does not accept what I have said. The board will publish its reasons in its annual report.

I can’t . . .

I cannot look into the merits of a complaint and that means the Adjudicator or Ombudsman’s use of judgement in weighing evidence and in reaching a decision.

I do not deal with complaints about the Financial Services Authority which has its own Complaints Commissioner.

My Annual Report

I produce an annual report summarising my findings and recommendations and the Financial Ombudsman Service publishes it in its annual report.

How am I independent?

Although I am appointed by the board of the Financial Ombudsman Service I am not part of the day to day organisation and work independently. The Independent Assessor job was advertised in national newspapers and the board asked an independent person to take part in the selection process to make sure it was fair.

Why me? I have many years experience in complaint handling, designing good complaint handling systems, providing advice to organisations wanting to improve the way they handled complaints and being Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 6 years. I have not worked in the financial services world before, nor has my husband, and we have only a normal customer relationship with financial businesses.

I know that some people are concerned that as I am appointed by the board and have desk space in the Ombudsman Service’s offices, I cannot be truly independent.  This is my third job with “independent” in the title and I believe that real independence is independence of thought, seeing things from an outsider’s point of view and making persuasive, evidence based recommendations that make a difference.

Mrs Linda Costelloe Baker OBE

 

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