As a massive favour to financial firms, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority is stopping the public from making any new payment protection insurance claims after 29 August 2019.

To encourage consumers to decide whether to act about PPI before the deadline, the FCA will run a two-year consumer publicity campaign, starting in August.

The FCA has also published rules and guidelines to govern the way in which firms handle complaints in the light of the Supreme Court judgment in Plevin v Paragon Personal Finance Ltd. Because of this decision, which the FCA found unwelcome, a consumer might have new grounds on which to complain about PPI regarding the amount of money that the providers received for this-or-that sale if the failure to disclose that commission made the relationship unfair.

As proposed, the FCA’s approach includes a 50% commission ‘tipping point’ at which firms should presume, for handling PPI complaints, that the failure to disclose commission gave rise to an unfair relationship, and that profit share should be included in firms’ calculation of commission. Redress will be calculated as the excess commission over the 50% tipping point.

The FCA will also require all firms to write to previously rejected complainants who are eligible to complain in the light of Plevin, explaining the new basis for complaining to them.

Consumers with live PPI policies will now be able to complain after the deadline if they have future claims on their policies rejected for reasons related to sales. Each complaint must be related to the reason why the claim was rejected - for example, eligibility, exclusions or limitations.

Complaints about PPI policies sold after 29 August 2017 are not subject to the deadline.

The rules to do with Plevin will come into effect at the same time as the deadline rule – not three months before, as originally planned.