There were 256 complaints made about pensions to Resolver between April 2020 and March 2021, in comparison to 834 made between April 2019 and March 2020, according to the report from the complaints assistance firm.

Complaints about annuities also dropped 69.2% to 37 complaints between April 2020 and March 2021, in comparison to 120 made between April 2019 and March 2020. However, the 37 complaints was broadly in line with earlier years with 41 complaints made in April 2018 to March 2019.

There were 473 complaints made about investments between April 2020 and March 2021, in comparison to 462 made between April 2019 and March 2020, according to the report from complaints assistance firm Resolver.

Over 70,000 complaints were made about banking and financial services with packaged bank accounts, overdrafts, loans and credit issues driving complaints.

Fraud-related claims and complaints were up across the finance sector compared to 2019/2020, with most services seeing an increase of more than 10%. Where the complaint concerned consumers being defrauded by another business, they fell into two main categories - identity-related issues where accounts were opened fraudulently and those either reporting or falling victim to scams.

While many cases concerned consumers asking their provider for help or to get their money back, a worrying number of customers were having trouble contacting fraud helplines or being refused help. Almost one in five fraud cases raised to finance companies were escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Resolver said it is seeing fraud cases in the hundreds across the finance sector in 2021 so far and expects this to grow.

Alex Neill, chief executive at Resolver, said: “What I have been struck by this year from our data is just how difficult it can be to simply get in touch with a business to lodge a complaint, and then to get an appropriate, timely resolution. It’s a significant source of pain and frustration for consumers.”

For its annual complaints data report, Resolver brought together annual statistics covering almost 900,000 issues across more than 100 products and services between April 2020 and March 2021.

Resolver’s Annual Complaints Data features information, statistics and emerging trends, covering the key things that people complained about over lockdown.