THOUSANDS of households could be in line for compensation worth up to £12,000.
Whether its through class actions, following bank or broadband outages or state pension underpayments, you could be in line for money back.
1
The reasons you might be owed compensation vary depending on your circumstances, and some you might not even be aware of.
Here’s eight ways you could be owed cash back worth up to a whopping £12,000.
Mobile firm “rip-off charges
Millions might be in line for £1,823 in compensation from four major mobile firms over so-called “rip-off” charges.
Those who’ve taken out contracts with Vodafone, EE, Three and O2 could be affected, according to a class action lawsuit.
Read more in Money
Former Citizens Advice executive Justin Gutmann claims that millions of customers at these firms have fallen victim to the “loyalty penalty”.
The term can mean different things but in this case refers to customers who carried on paying for their handset cost after the original contract expired.
It can also relate to firms offering cheaper deals to new customers while hiking prices for existing, loyal ones.
Vodafone customers could get up to £1,823, EE up to £1,101, Three up to £1,817 and O2 up to £1,178.
Most read in Money
But it’s worth noting that class actions don’t always guarantee a payout so you might not be in line for the cash.
What are the different types of pensions?
Broadband and bank outages
Households can often find they’re hit with bank or broadband outages in an increasingly digital world.
This can see your internet go down leaving you struggling to get online, or your mobile banking app crashing.
But in some cases you can get compensation.
There’s no official scheme in place that obliges banks to give out compensation following outages.
However, some, including Nationwide, have been known to offer payouts to customers in the past.
Even if your bank doesn’t officially offer you compensation, you can still make a complaint and you might be able to get a refund.
Unlike with bank outages, there is an Automatic Compensation Scheme in place for customers who have had problems with their broadband connection.
However, it’s down to you to report you’ve had issues with your provider.
Under the Automatic Compensation Scheme customers should get any compensation they’re due as a credit to their bill within 30 days.
You currently get £9.33 if your connection goes down for more than two days, and then £9.33 for each day after this you’re without a connection.
Train and flight delays
Under the Delay Repay scheme, you can get a refund if your train is delayed by 15 minutes or more.
What you get back depends on the length of the delay, with compensation ranging from 25% to 100% of the ticket price.
You get 100% back if your train is delayed by 120 minutes or longer, for example.
So, hypothetically, if your train ticket cost £100 and you arrived two hours or more late to your destination, you’d be in line for a £100 refund.
You can launch a delay repay claim via the train company’s website.
Airline customers can get compensation if they’re hit with a delay or cancellation too.
Passengers flying with an EU airline or a non-EU airline flying from an EU airport are protected by the Denied Boarding regulations.
This means the airline has to offer you the option of either being reimbursed for a cancelled flight or rerouted on either the next possible flight or a date agreed with you.
That means if you choose to be reimbursed for a cancelled flight which cost £500, you would receive the £500 back.
An airline also has to provide you with meals, phone calls, hotel accommodation and transfers, but only if the rerouting involves an overnight stay.
WASPI women
Tens of thousands of women are owed compensation over historic Department for Work and Pensions errors.
A report published on March 21 found the group of women, referred to as WASPI (Women Against State Pension Age Inequality), are in line for payouts worth up to £2,950.
Those affected were born in the 1950s and told they would have to wait longer for their retirement cash when changes to the state pension were accelerated in 2010.
The Pension Ombudsman has stepped in and asked Parliament to intervene, saying it needs to ensure a compensation scheme is established.
That means the payout is not guaranteed and people may not receive compensation.
You can find out more about the report and who might be in line for compensation here.
State pension underpayment
Almost 100,000 pensioners have received £5,900 on average after being underpaid a state pension.
But an estimated 137,000 more could be owed cash.
Some of the underpayments go back as far as 1985 and were made due to a combination of old complex state pension rules and IT errors.
A broad range of people were affected, but it was mostly women who do not have a full National Insurance record.
How to check what benefits you could be entitled to
The quickest way to see what benefits you may be able to claim is to use one of the three benefit calculators recommended by Gov.uk.
Each one is free to use. They are:
Before using the tools, make sure you have key financial information to hand, such as bank and savings statements, and information on pensions and existing benefits.
If you live with a partner or family, get their basic financial information together too as this could affect your claim.
For each of these, you’ll be asked information about your circumstances, such as your current employment and income.
You’ll also need to give information about yourself, including your age and who you live with.
You can then use the contact information on Gov.uk to get the ball rolling and apply for what you’re owed.
Of course, the tools only provide an indicator of what benefits you can claim – and usually don’t include means tested benefits, so you may be entitled to even more.
The Government’s most recent data reveals some pensioners who have already been paid compensation have received up to £12,000.
If you think you might have been underpaid, there is an online tool set up by former pensions minister Steve Webb on behalf of actuarial firm LCP which you can use.
Either way, if you are owed underpaid pension payments back, the DWP should contact you to let you know.
PPI
Brits could be owed around £2,500 in compensation after a legal claim was launched against some of the UK’s biggest banks.
Legal papers filed to Birmingham County Court last October, led by law firm Harcus Parker, accused banks of secretly charging a whopping 80% commission on personal protection insurance (PPI) sales, and not refunding it in previous compensation claims.
The new legal claim is open to those who have had a previous PPI claim rejected, or those who were underpaid in previous claims.
Again, because the legal claim is a class action, that means there’s no guarantee people will get compensation.
However, lawyers said this claim had a good chance of succeeding.
Anyone who thinks they might be able to make a claim through Harcus Parker, can sign up via the law firm’s website.
Overpaid council tax
An investigation by Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert website has revealed 800,000 households are owed potentially thousands of pounds back in overpaid council tax.
There are a number of reasons why you might have overpaid council tax, including if you’ve moved out of an area after paying for it in advance or had a retrospective discount applied.
You could potentially be owed thousands of pounds back so it’s worth checking if you think you’ve overpaid.
One Martin Lewis fan revealed that they got £4,000 back from a Council Tax bill after finding out they were eligible for a reduction.
You can claim back any overpaid council tax by filling out a online claims form on your council’s website.
This will usually be the quickest way to go about getting a refund, although you’ll likely need your council tax reference number to hand. You can find this on a previous bill.
Failing that, you can call or email your council, but bear in mind the council may ask you to fill in a form anyway.
Mis-sold credit cards, loans and overdrafts
Millions who have been mis-sold unaffordable credit on cards, loans and overdrafts could be due compensation.
Lenders are responsible for checking whether a borrower can afford to pay back a loan before handing out credit.
But if you have been mis-sold credit, you could be in line for compensation.
More than half of complaints on unaffordable loans are upheld by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which decides whether a customer is owed a refund.
According to debt advisor Sara Williams, from Debt Camel, any of the following products could be worth checking to see if you’ve been mis-sold credit:
- Payday loans intended for short-term credit
- Car finance loans
- Guarantor loans where a parent or friend had to pay it back if you defaulted
- Standard personal loans where the monthly repayment was unsustainable given your financial circumstances
- Bank overdrafts that were increased without a financial check
- Credit cards with high spending limits
If you want to make a claim, you can complain directly to your lender first.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
You can do it yourself or use a free dispute resolution service such as Resolver.
If your claim is successful, you could see thousands paid back in compensation.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories.
