The refusal to enforce a long stop has only exacerbated the problem and there is still money to be made from advisers, as evidenced by claims manager Rebus finding a buyer for its book of claims against IFAs earlier this year.
For so long the balance has been so skewed towards those claiming that there is no concept of a fair hearing, or justice being served. The odds are so stacked in favour of claimants that companies that syphon off just a percentage of any winnings can afford to employ an entire call centre to ring the general public at hourly intervals to discuss a car crash they haven’t had.
I can not call these companies or their representatives liars, but I was receiving calls assuring me I had been in a car crash and was entitled to compensation long before I had even passed my driving test. That should speak for the levels of honesty involved.
It is undeniable that mis-selling has occurred in PPI as much as endowment mortgages, and those affected should be compensated in full, without having to pay up to 25 per cent to a firm that has done little more than fill in some forms on their behalf.
Mis-selling is a terrible thing, but it was a terrible thing 20 years ago and the claims companies that have been allowed to spring up around it are a direct result of a regulatory failure to properly oversee the complaints and claims procedure then.
Regulation of the parasitic industry that has now attached itself to PPI is overdue and welcome. But if the regulator had acted properly years ago, these companies might not have been able to become so big in the first place.
