If your mis-selling PPI claim was previously rejected, but you received a partial so-called ‘Plevin’ payout, you can now demand your full money back regardless of whether or not PPI was appropriate for you. Millions of consumers are now entitled to a second wave of lucrative PPI claims after a series of Court rulings found that the product was “unfair”.

UK banks sold payment protection policies alongside loans, mortgages, and credit cards to cover repayments if the borrower was unable to due to illness, disability or redundancy. However, the banks routinely mis-sold this product to people who would not have been eligible to make a claim under the policy, were not aware they were buying it or already had cover. The banks have already paid out £50bn in compensation for mis-sold PPI, making it the largest consumer redress amount in history.

It is less well known that banks selling PPI would also receive huge commissions from insurers, sometimes accounting for more than 95% of the cost of the policy. The banks never disclosed these commissions to their customers. The judges in the recent case of Plevin v Paragon at the Supreme Court said that if the banks had informed their customers of the high level of these commissions, it is likely that many customers would not have bought the policy. The Court ruled that where a lender or other provider hid large commissions from a consumer, this created an unfair relationship between the lender and the consumer. Consequently, these consumers are entitled to a refund of the full amount of commission paid plus 8% compensatory interest. If you want to learn more, you can read the full judgment here https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2014-0037-judgment.pdf.

This decision in the Supreme Court has fundamentally altered PPI claims in the UK. The judgement in Plevin vs Paragon Personal Finance (2014) allows customers to bring an unfair relationship claim based on non-disclosure of commissions. Other recent cases have upheld this judgement and previously rejected PPI cases can now be re-opened on this fresh ground of complaint.

The FCA has issued rules and guidance in handling complaints in light of Plevin, which state that customers are automatically entitled to redress for commission above 50%. However, we are able to recover the remaining commission over the 50% tipping point to provide customers with a significant increase in their potential redress.