ABI says continued nuisance calls and texts are still plaguing the public

The ABI has found that the public is still being plagued by nuisance calls or texts from claims management companies encouraging them to claim for compensation.

A survey conducted by the group has discovered that 83% of people have been contacted by a claims management company encouraging them to claim for compensation, including for personal injury following a road traffic accident and mis-sold payment protection insurance. Nearly half of people – 49% – had been contacted within the last week.

In addition, the ABI said that 92% of those contacted said that the enquiry had no relevance to their experiences or any financial products that they have purchased. Another 83% said that it was unacceptable to be contacted by claims management companies without their consent.

James Dalton, the ABI’s director of general insurance policy, said the findings were “shocking” and showed that the “UK’s compensation culture is alive and well”.

“For too long, too many people have been plagued by these nuisance calls and action is needed to clamp down on them,” he said.

“The industry fully supports genuine claimants receiving compensation in a timely and proportionate manner, which is why we have campaigned for the changes to our civil litigation system.

“But the continued behaviour of some claims management companies encourages fraudulent and frivolous claims that push up the costs of insurance for honest customers. We will be working with the Government in their review of the claims management sector to ensure that this day-to-day nuisance is tackled once and for all.”

However, First4Lawyers head of marketing Andy Cullwick, said that the the ABI’s new survey and call for a clampdown on rogue claims management companies, only poured more “rhetoric than meaningful discussion into the debate on how to best tackle rogue CMCs”.

“Unfortunately, the ABI’s survey doesn’t differentiate consumers’ opinions between CMCs operating within the PPI and those within the personal injury sector,” he said.

“The PI sector is often wrongly vilified because it is regulated by the same body. More meaningful dialogue needs to be opened between the insurance industry, claimant providers and the CMR to see how we can collectively tackle rogue players.”

Mark Dugdale