FOS award limits increase from 1 April 2024

The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed an increase to the Financial Ombudsman Service's award limits from 1 April 2024, the ombudsman service said on 13 March 2024¹. The award limit is the maximum amount the service can require a financial business to pay when it upholds complaints¹.

From 1 April 2024 the limits are £430,000 for complaints referred to the service on or after that date about acts or omissions by firms on or after 1 April 2019, and £195,000 for complaints referred on or after that date about acts or omissions by firms before 1 April 2019¹. The service said the limit is adjusted each year in line with inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index¹.

The service's later published list of award limits over time sets out the position for complaints referred in earlier and later years²:

The service said it would update the guidance on its website to reflect the changes from 1 April 2024¹. It also said different limits apply depending on when the complaint was brought to it¹. The FCA's policy statement PS19/8 sets out the background to increasing the award limits, and the change appears in the FCA Handbook¹.

The service can recommend a business pay more than the limit if it thinks that is fair, but the business does not have to accept that recommendation². It has also said that although it tells businesses how to calculate compensation, it will not usually check the calculations a business makes².

The increase was reported alongside the service's Plans and Budget for 2024/25, which it said details the next phase of its service transformation and confirms the increased caseload it expects in the coming financial year⁴.

Why it matters for households

The award limit caps what the ombudsman service can order a firm to pay when it upholds a complaint, so it matters most to people whose losses are large: investment and pension complaints, mortgage and long-term savings cases, and high-value fraud claims. The limit that applies depends on two dates, not on the size of the loss alone: when the complaint was referred to the service, and when the firm's act or omission happened¹. A complaint referred on or after 1 April 2024 about conduct from 1 April 2019 onwards is now covered up to £430,000, while one about earlier conduct is covered up to £195,000¹. Complaints referred before 1 April 2019 remain subject to the £150,000 limit².

The limit is not a guaranteed payout. It is the ceiling on what the service can require, and awards above it can only be recommended, not enforced². Where compensation is calculated rather than fixed, the service sets out how the business should work it out and does not usually check the arithmetic². Interest awarded because someone was deprived of their money can be paid on top of the limit².

Separately, Which? noted in a September 2024 consultation response that the ombudsman service's award limit had risen from £415,000 to £430,000 in April 2024, and described a discrepancy with the Payment Systems Regulator's proposed £85,000 cap on reimbursement for authorised push payment scams⁵. That response concerns a different scheme and a different cap, and does not change the ombudsman limits.

What happens next

The service said it would update its website guidance from 1 April 2024¹. Its published list of limits shows further annual increases taking effect on 1 April 2025 and 1 April 2026². From 1 January 2026, the service said it typically asks financial businesses to calculate interest on awards using a time-weighted average of the Bank of England base rate plus one percentage point, rather than the 8% simple a year used before that date².