AFCA is experiencing delays in allocating general insurance complaints to case workers. This is because of an unprecedented number of complaints progressing to case management, especially complaints about insurance issues and those relating to flooding events across Australia.
While AFCA is increasing the size of our insurance team to better support and help resolve disputes, and prioritising financial hardship complaints, the number of insurance complaints is much higher than AFCA has received previously so delays are likely to continue for some time.
We apologise for the delays and acknowledge this is a difficult time for many people. We will work to resolve complaints as quickly as we can, and we thank you for your understanding and for showing respect to our staff as they work with you.
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If your circumstances change, or you require urgent help from AFCA, please contact info@afca.org.au.
About the AFCA complaint process
When you lodge a complaint with AFCA, we first refer your complaint back to the insurer, so they have an opportunity to resolve the issue with you directly. Generally, your insurer has up to 30 days to respond.
More than half of the complaints lodged with AFCA resolve at this early stage.
However, if your insurer does not respond after 30 days, is unable to resolve the issue, or you are not happy with their response, AFCA progresses your complaint to our case management stage. We wrote to you at this time to confirm that your complaint was progressing.
It is at this point in our process, allocating case workers, that we are experiencing delays.
If your complaint has progressed to case management after being referred to your insurer, your complaint is in the case management allocation queue and will be processed as soon as possible.
Update on timeframes
AFCA wrote to you to confirm that your complaint was progressing to our Case Management stage.
We are currently allocating complaints which received this correspondence between 1 August and 15 August 2023.
These timeframes were updated on 25 September 2023. AFCA will update this page regularly with the latest information on expected timeframes. Please note, this update is an indicative timeframe only.
What to do next
We strongly encourage you to stay in contact with your insurer throughout the complaints process. AFCA is also encouraging insurers to talk to their customers regularly to avoid disputes.
It may be that your insurer will get back to you about your claim after you have made a complaint to AFCA. If this happens, we encourage you to work directly with your insurer to resolve your complaint. If your complaint resolves, please let us know by emailing info@afca.org.au.
Find out more about our process here.
Financial difficulty, special circumstances and flood-related complaints
AFCA has set up specialised teams to handle flood-related complaints and is doing its best to prioritise help for those experiencing financial difficulty or who have been significantly impacted by the floods. This includes, but is not limited to, people who do not have access to shelter due to a damaged home.
If, due to the floods you can’t make loan repayments, contact your bank or financial service provider. They can usually provide you with help when you’re experiencing hardship.
If your circumstances change, or you require urgent help from AFCA, please contact info@afca.org.au.
Financial counsellors
If you’re struggling financially after a disaster, there are free financial counselling services you can contact for help. This is a free service offered by community organisations, community legal centres and some government agencies.
There is also a range of other organisations that may be able to help you.
More information
Other insurance complaints, including CCI complaints
AFCA is doing its best to address every complaint as quickly as possible, however we are prioritising financial difficulty complaints or those related to the recent storms and floods.
Other insurance complaints
If your insurance complaint is about a product or service that is not related to the floods, you are not experiencing financial difficulty and you do not have special circumstances, your complaint may take longer to be allocated to an AFCA case manager.
Consumer Credit Insurance (CCI) complaints
If you have a CCI complaint or are a paid representative such as an insurance claims handling firm with a complaint about CCI, your complaint may take longer to progress.
We apologise for the inconvenience and will allocate every complaint to a case worker as soon as possible.
If your circumstances change, or you require urgent help from AFCA, please contact info@afca.org.au.
Paid representatives
If you are a paid representative with a complaint about CCI, please communicate this delay to your client to help manage their expectations. More information is available about our expectations of paid representatives here.
