The Consumer Council of Northern Ireland welcomes the invitation to respond to the FCA’s Call for input and welcomes the plan to evaluate the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR). Due to the technical nature of the questions posed within the Call for Input, The Consumer Council believe it is best placed to provide an overview of the issues in relation to RDR and FAMR that it would like the FCA to consider moving forward.
We have 4 questions in our Customer Satisfaction Survey that asks the consumer to rate on a scale from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree’, how our assistance affected them in the following ways:
Made them feel relieved of stress and anxiety;
Made them feel supported;
Made them feel listened to; and
Made them more empowered as a consumer.
The results for 2018-19 are in the attached document.
In February 2019 YouGov conducted a survey across Northern Ireland on behalf of The Consumer Council to understand key consumer issues. This report covers key findings around Northern Ireland consumers and their household expenditure, if they shop around for essential goods and services and switch and save. In addition, it also highlights if they have been targeted by scams and how well they know their consumer rights.
The Consumer Council’s Home Energy Index tracks changes in household gas, electricity and home heating oil (HHO) prices in Northern Ireland. It also creates a composite index; meaning that all three energy prices are combined to create one overarching figure, which is weighted for the usage and market share, and tracks fluctuations over time.
