The Financial Ombudsman Service is expecting over 181,000 consumer complaints in the 2024/25 financial year, according to its annual consultation paper.

The Ombudsman said it expects complaints to be driven by everyday issues such as unaffordable lending, travel and motor insurance and fraud and scam cases.

In the last financial year, the FOS received 165,149 complaints across all financial services compared to 164,560 complaints in 2021/22.

It upheld 35% of the complaints it resolved, compared to 34% in the previous financial year.

The FOS said it has set itself a new target of resolving 90% of cases within five months.

The consultation also set out plans to reduce the case fee by £100 per case to £650 and reduce its compulsory and voluntary jurisdiction levies on businesses. The ombudsman said this represents a £60m reduction in case fee and levy costs to businesses, once inflation and increases in the number of cases resolved are taken into consideration.

Abby Thomas, chief ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “Looking ahead we know our service will see a high level of complaints and that those disputes will likely focus on the critical issues that impact people’s everyday lives. This includes perceived unaffordable lending, mortgages and complaints about people’s savings and current accounts.

“We are planning to be more ambitious next year, resolving complaints more quickly and improving the service we offer. At a time when all businesses are facing financial pressures, we are also reducing the cost of our service to industry.”

The areas where the ombudsman said it expects to see the highest volume of new complaints are:

• A continued rise in disputed transactions, driven by the increasing volume of financial fraud and scams.
• Cost-of-living pressures leading to a rise in irresponsible and unaffordable lending complaints.
• A rise in account closure complaints prompted by higher public awareness of the issue.
• Motor insurance complaints continuing at a high level, partly due to wide scale delays in being able to repair vehicles and impact of second-hand car market on valuations.
• Further complaints about car finance commission arrangements.

The ombudsman is also seeking feedback on new charges for claims management companies and legal firms for bringing cases.

The FOS’ annual consultation closes on 30 January.