The Financial Ombudsman Service will take on 1,000 new staff in the coming tax year to tackle an unprecedented level of complaints involving mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

The Ombudsman service, which resolves disputes between customers and financial businesses, said the staff expansion was in addition to the 1,000 new employees it took on last year to help deal with the increased number of calls. The Ombudsman said it was receiving more than 5,000 complaint cases a week and expects to continue to receive the same number of new PPI cases every week for the rest of this year and into 2014. The Ombudsman predicts it will have taken on 375,000 new cases between April 2012 and April 2013, 250,000 of which relate to the mis-selling of PPI policies. The Ombudsman service is also proposing to increase the fees charged to financial services firms when cases are referred to the ombudsman. The fee will rise by £50 to £550. Additional fees charged on cases relating to payment protection insurance will be kept at £350.....More here on this story: PPI: ombudsman hires 1,000 more workers to handle complaints