PPI complaints surge to new high after figures double

The huge surge in PPI complaints compared with the last six months of 2011 drove a 59 per cent increase in the total number of complaints to firms to 3,577,599, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said.

There were 2.23 million complaints about PPI in the first half of 2012, the highest six-monthly figure the FSA has ever recorded.

PPI complaints have soared by 129 per cent compared with the second half of 2011, when just under 977,000 complaints were reported. Around £10bn has been set aside by banks to cover claims being made by people who were sold insurance they did not want or need, in what is predicted to become the biggest consumer financial scandal of all time.

PPI policies were meant to help people pay back their loans after a loss of income, but a widespread mis-selling scandal emerged, with some people finding they had taken out the insurance without realising it or felt under pressure to do so.