Harpreet Uppal MP: speeches

Speeches

• 20 May 2025 · Lifetime Mortgages: Support for Older People · Hansard source

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  2. What recent discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the adequacy of support from mortgage lenders for older people with interest roll-up lifetime mortgages.

• 20 May 2025 · Lifetime Mortgages: Support for Older People · Hansard source

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  One of my constituents, a 96-year-old man, took out in 1990 what he thought was a £15,000 loan, but what was actually an interest roll-up lifetime mortgage. Despite paying £40,000 over the years, he now owes over £52,000 due to compound interest. He has been denied redress by the financial ombudsman due to time limits, and my team has also contacted the FCA and the lender without success. My constituent is now left to deal with the consequences. Will the Minister meet me to discuss this case, and how we can better support other people who have been mis-sold those products?

• 22 Oct 2024 · Renters' Rights Bill (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q I have a really quick question. I just want to get more information on how you see your role in terms of how you interface with the public, as you will potentially be taking on this additional role for private rented sector tenants. What more do we need to do to make sure that tenants are very clear about their rights and how they can access your service? Richard Blakeway: That is a really important question. It is one thing having an ombudsman service; it is another people being aware of it and being able to access it. We have certainly been on a journey within our current jurisdiction to think about how we interface with the public and become more accessible to them, and we have obviously seen the benefits of that. A number of initiatives have been required to bring about a change, but the Department has done a number of surveys of social tenants to understand awareness levels. Awareness is now at around 70% among social tenants, according to two surveys that were done in the last three years, compared with probably sub-50% previously. There is a playbook there, if you like, for how you create awareness of access to an ombudsman. We have sought to use our existing service and be very open and visible. For example, in the 2023-24 financial year, about 6,000 residents engaged in open forums that we hosted around the country where they could come along and ask any questions. That is really important. I have two brief thoughts. First, the complaints process does not start with the ombudsman service; it starts with the landlord. A very important thing to do very early on is make sure that there is a robust framework to support landlords to handle and resolve complaints, but that includes signposting to an ombudsman service so that there is clear awareness at a local level. That work is really important to do in advance of any ombudsman service going live. The second thing that I think is important is how you stitch the ombudsman service into other bodies and advice agencies—Shelter, Citizens Advice and so on—which, again, is something that we have at the moment. One of the benefits of having a single front door through the housing ombudsman for both social and private tenants is that you can effectively introduce no wrong door for people. Once a tenant reaches someone, to be told “Actually we can’t help you” and be sent somewhere else is probably the last thing they want, but that is what they hear currently. About one in five inquiries that we get from the public at the moment are from people who we cannot help because they are outside our jurisdiction. We could effectively provide a single front door and prevent that, building on the awareness activities that we have at the moment. Again, it is really important to introduce that early on. Were the housing ombudsman to be designated as the redress provider, that is something that I would want to be able to introduce through our existing inquiries service immediately, even in advance of us being able to handle cases, so that we could provide effective advice to residents so that they understand their rights and where to go.