Not upheld: failure to make reasonable adjustments for vulnerable customer complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr P, a customer with multiple disabilities, requested copy statements from Barclays in August 2025 for an appeal with a deadline at the end of July 2025. Barclays arranged for statements to be sent to him within two weeks, but the first set was lost in the post and a replacement arrived in October 2025, after the appeal had been rejected. Mr P complained that Barclays failed to make reasonable adjustments and also breached communication preferences by calling and texting him. The ombudsman found that Barclays did make a reasonable adjustment by arranging to send statements, that the postal loss was not Barclays' liability, and that even the original set would have arrived too late to meet the appeal deadline, so the complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Barclays did arrange for copy statements to be sent to Mr P as a reasonable adjustment. The first set was lost in the post, which the ombudsman determined was not Barclays' liability. The second set arrived in October 2025, but the ombudsman found that even the original set would have arrived too late to meet the appeal deadline at the end of July 2025. Therefore, the delay in receiving statements was not the cause of the appeal being turned down.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website