Who we are

The Claims Management Ombudsman became responsible for resolving complaints about claims management companies (CMCs) on 1 April 2019. We’re part of the Financial Ombudsman Service, but we look at complaints about CMCs separately.

If you have a complaint about a financial business, or if you’re a financial business handling a complaint, head to our Financial Ombudsman Service website.

We look at customers’ complaints about the service provided by CMCs. Where things aren’t fair, we can use our powers to put them right.

We cover CMCs that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). From 1 April 2019, the FCA began regulating CMCs that handle claims relating to:

• criminal injury
• employment
• financial products and services
• housing disrepair
• industrial injury
• personal injury

Before 1 April 2019, the Legal Ombudsman dealt with complaints about CMCs. We also cover CMCs that were covered by the Legal Ombudsman at the time of the event the complaint is about.

If you’ve complained to a CMC about their service, but you don’t feel they’ve settled your complaint fairly, we can help put things right.

If you work for a CMC and deal with customer complaints, we can advise you on how to handle and prevent complaints. 

What is a claims management company?

CMCs help people make a claim for compensation. For example, they may help you if you think a financial business has given you misleading advice when selling you a product or service – and you’ve lost out as a result.

Typically, a CMC will charge you a fee for their service, which might include:

• giving you advice about a claim
• investigating a claim
• representing a claim on your behalf

Our powers

Our powers are set out in Part XVI and Schedule 17 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

This is supplemented by Chapter 4, Part 3, of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Claims Management Activity) Order 2018.