AFCA is currently experiencing delays in allocating complaints to its Dispute Resolution Specialists due to a significant increase in complaints across most product areas – particularly in insurance due to floods, and banking due to scams.
While AFCA is increasing the size of its team to better support and help resolve disputes, and prioritising financial hardship complaints, the large number of complaints means delays are likely to continue for some time.
We apologise for the inconvenience and acknowledge that dispute resolution can be 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 you have made a complaint to AFCA, we will keep you updated about the progress of your complaint while it awaits allocation to a Dispute Resolution Specialist.
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 financial firm (such as bank or insurer), so they have an opportunity to resolve the issue with you directly. Generally, financial firms have up to 30 days to respond (45 days for superannuation complaints).
More than half of the complaints lodged with AFCA resolve at this early stage.
However, if your financial firm 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 the next stage of our process.
It is at this point in our process, allocating complaints to Dispute Resolution Specialists, that we are experiencing delays.
If your complaint has progressed to the next stage after being referred to your financial firm, your complaint is in the Dispute Resolution Specialist allocation queue and will be processed as soon as possible.
What to do next
We encourage you to stay in contact with your financial firm throughout the complaints process. AFCA encourages firms to talk to their customers regularly to avoid disputes.
It may be that your financial firm is able to resolve your complaint after you have complained to AFCA. If this happens, please let us know by emailing info@afca.org.au.
While we work to assign a Dispute Resolution Specialist to your complaint, we suggest you:
- make sure you have all your documentation and evidence ready
- prepare a statement of financial position if you're experiencing financial difficulty (see more below)
- let us know if you need any additional support or would like to appoint a representative to help you.
Let us know if your circumstances have changed
If there is an urgent matter related to your complaint that needs our attention, please contact us. We will ask you to provide details and supporting documents, so we can assess whether your complaint should be prioritised.
If you are experiencing financial hardship
AFCA has specialised teams to handle complaints relating to financial hardship, and we are doing what we can to prioritise these complaints.
We use streamlined processes for hardship complaints to ensure these are dealt with in an efficient, timely and fair manner. Financial difficulty complaints will be identified as soon as possible after we receive them.
- We are committed to making our service easy to access. Read more information about how to get extra assistance to make a complaint to us.
- You can read more about our approach to financial difficulty and some of the common issues we see.
- A Statement of Financial Position can help you understand how much you can afford to pay towards your debts.
Financial counsellors
If you are struggling financially, there are financial counselling services you can contact for help. This is a free service offered by community organisations, community legal centres and some government agencies.
