It will freeze case fees paid by businesses (only after the 25th case) at £550 for the fourth year running, meaning that 99% of businesses will continue to pay no case fee.
It will also continue to fund three-quarters of its workload through the group-account charging arrangement that covers the eight largest businesses responsible for the most complaints.
Its proposed total operating income will be held at £223.2m, slightly lower than its forecast for the current year. However it plans to ask the FCA to increase the overall levy for the compulsory jurisdiction from £23.3m to £24.5m in 2016/2017.
This means the overall amount of the levy in 2016/2017 is 'effectively frozen', according to the Ombudsman's budget.
Next year, FOS expects to answer 1.7 million front-line consumer problems and enquiries, and resolve a record number of complaints (270,000) involving PPI.
Broken down, it will deal with 76,000 banking complaints, 30,000 insurance cases and 15,000 investment complaints – similar levels to the previous year.
General casework – complaints that aren’t about PPI or packaged bank accounts – are expected to reach 105,000 for the year, broadly in line with expectations.
On the other hand, it expects to receive 40,000 complaints about packaged bank accounts – a third higher than the 30,000 budgeted for.
Additionally, it is planning for 15,000 new complaints about investments and pensions – around 2% higher than the budget for 2015/2016.
Caroline Wayman, chief ombudsman, said:
"We’re planning for another busy year at the financial ombudsman service – as the high level of complaints we’ve seen in recent years stabilises and we make good progress resolving cases ever more quickly and effectively.
"To help us do this, we’re working increasingly closely with financial businesses to continue to manage the impact of large volumes of complaints – and to plan for the inevitable volatility that can always impact the world of complaints.
"I’m confident that the foundations we’ve established in recent years – through investing in our people, our systems and the way we work – will give us the flexibility, efficiency and resilience to handle the challenges that the future might hold."
