text:
Financial Ombudsman
Financial Ombudsman Service website
Annual review 2018/2019
Headline complaints data
Chief ombudsman's foreword
In 2018/2019 we received
new complaints
We upheld
And an average of
about everything else
Chief ombudsman & chief executive, Caroline Wayman.
The past 12 months have been our busiest for five years. People brought more than 388,000 complaints to our service - up 14% on the year before. All in all, we dealt with nearly 1.7 million phone calls, emails and letters from people concerned about their money.
These are big numbers. One of the trends behind them is the rise in complaints about consumer credit products and services – which grew by a further 89%, following last year's 40% increase. When PPI is excluded, they represented one in every three new cases we received this year.
What we've seen in this sector has been unacceptable: in too many cases, customers have been left to struggle with unsustainable debt. Looking at short-term lending in particular, the proportion of complaints we upheld – around six in every ten – shows diligent lenders have been the exception. At the end of a volatile year that saw lenders collapse as a consequence of past unfairness, it's vital that those remaining don't allow history to repeat itself.
It's not only borrowers who've lost out. As this annual review highlights, we've also raised concerns about potential vulnerability and harm in other areas – for example, warning insurers about penalising customer loyalty, and challenging banks to deliver fairer outcomes for victims of fraud.
We also saw on a large scale the implications of the ongoing shift to online banking – as a major IT failure, as well as several smaller ones, affected millions of people and generated many thousands of complaints. Regardless of whether such problems are avoidable, we've stressed to banks that, in putting things right, they need to consider the impact on individual customers – which in some cases had been significant.
Along the way, we also received our two-millionth complaint about PPI. This example of mass mis-selling fundamentally changed our service – as we faced the reality of dealing with customer detriment on a scale we hadn't seen before, and haven't since. As the FCA's complaints deadline of 29 August approaches, we're standing ready to help all the people who ask us for clarity about their PPI.
In what's been a really challenging year, people's satisfaction with our service has remained high – along with public trust. And we've continued to use feedback, including the independent review of our service published in July 2018, as an opportunity to do things even better. That's been especially important as we've been preparing to take on two new jurisdictions – for complaints about claims management companies, and from more small business customers of financial services – and as we look ahead beyond PPI, to an increasingly diverse and complex mix of complaints.
Our success in helping everyone who needs us depends on people across our organisation, who are motivated by fairness and providing an excellent service. So thank you to everyone: your hard work and commitment has delivered so much in such a busy year.
Caroline Wayman
Our chairman, Sir Nicholas Montagu.
My last annual review as chairman is an opportunity to look back over the service's last seven years, as well as ahead to its challenging but bright future.
Those years have involved leading the Board and supporting the executive through momentous change, both within the organisation and outside. To take the most obvious example, the scale and volume of our PPI work, and the growth in our organisation needed to handle it, were dramatic.
But there is much more to the story than that, as our work over the last year shows. PPI still dominates our figures, and the numbers of customers that our people have helped are a tribute to their steadfast commitment, which I've come to expect, but never take for granted. That same commitment is evident in the other areas of our work, where we continue to make a real difference.
We have worked hard to get fair outcomes for tens of thousands of payday loan borrowers, helped frame businesses' approach to fraud and scams, and contributed to important conversations about the causes of, and appropriate response to, customer vulnerability.
Change has been a constant theme of our work, and this year, as in previous ones, we have responded to it in a number of ways – with a firm focus on maintaining stakeholders' confidence in us and the fairness of our answers. We have moved from handling cases in a process-driven way to a more customer-oriented investigation model, which better meets the needs of both consumers and financial institutions by getting to the heart of disputes and helping to resolve them more quickly.
And our search for further opportunities to improve our service has been unrelenting: in the last year, we have been helped by Richard Lloyd's independent review, which my Board commissioned in response to concerns raised in a television documentary, and all of whose recommendations we accepted.
Behind the scenes, we have been improving our digital capability, and looking ahead to a time beyond the PPI deadline and what that will mean for the shape and structure of our service. From April, our jurisdiction has expanded to complaints about claims management companies and from more small business customers – bringing new challenges and opportunities.
As Richard Lloyd concluded in his report, we are an "effective and essential" service, and I am confident we will remain so. For this I am grateful to our dedicated staff, led by a strong and talented executive, and my Board colleagues, whose support and wisdom over the last year, as throughout my time at the Financial Ombudsman Service, have been unwavering.
I thank all of them for this, and for a hugely rewarding and enjoyable seven years as chairman.
Sir Nicholas Montagu
Banking and borrowing
total complaints about banking and credit in 2018/2019
89% rise in complaints about consumer credit
Read our banking and borrowing stories of the year
We've helped get fairer outcomes for victims of fraud – but banks must do more
As fraud and scams have become more sophisticated, we've told banks there's a high bar to meet before they can refuse to refund customers' money. More victims are now getting their money back than they would have done last year, but there's still work to do.
Today, people can access their banking through more channels and technology than ever before. Unfortunately, this has provided fertile ground for scammers who are moving with the times, too. We're seeing fraudsters using ever-more sophisticated techniques to take advantage of this. This means our approach to what's fair and reasonable has also had to evolve.
This year, we've been working closely with businesses, regulators and consumer groups to share our insight. We've helped shift thinking on what 'gross negligence' actually means when it comes to unauthorised payments – which is far more than just being careless. In doing this, we've helped banks have a fairer understanding of whether or not a payment is actually authorised in the first place.
This work is meaning that far more people are getting their money back. Some complaints won't reach us at all now, because banks are beginning to put this thinking into practice. Rule changes from January 2019 mean that we can also look at certain complaints about banks that receive fraudulent funds, as well as those that send them.
One of the fastest-growing types of fraud is 'authorised push payment' (APP) fraud – where people unwittingly act on fraudsters' instructions and carry out the transactions themselves. We've been taking a close look at the APP complaints we've received. And we've reminded banks of their existing obligations to ensure that victims of fraud are treated fairly, as we've found that they haven't always got this right.
From the end of May, some aspects of a new voluntary code will provide a mechanism for many victims of APP fraud to get their money back. Encouragingly, some banks have said they'd look to go over and above the new code to treat customers fairly – and we and banks need to keep working together to ensure these distressing situations get the fairest outcomes. We've published case studies on our website showing the types of complaints we see.
- Case study: Nadia falls victim to fraudsters
Nadia contacted us after her bank refused to refund £100,000 of her money, which she'd unwittingly sent to a fraudster.
She explained she'd received a call from someone who said they were from the police. They'd told her that staff at her local bank branch had been stealing money from customers, and that her own account was under threat. They'd convinced her that she needed to move all her money to a "safe account" to protect it from fraud.
Nadia then made four transfers in-branch for £25,000. She'd put the money in an account abroad using the information the fraudsters had given her – that this was a "safe account" in her name, and if the bank's staff asked questions, that the money was for a family wedding.
Nadia said she'd then waited for details of her new "safe account" to arrive in the post. When this didn't happen, she became suspicious and called the police – who told her that the investigation the caller had told her about didn't exist, and that she should call the bank immediately.
However, the bank refused to refund Nadia's payments, saying she'd authorised them herself. They said that she was well-known by branch staff – and although they'd noted the transactions were out of character, she'd given plausible answers to their questions about what the money was for and whether anyone else was involved.
Nadia remembered being asked these questions. But she said she was so anxious that she hadn't really taken in what the staff had said to her. She said she'd wanted to get things over quickly and get out of the branch, so she'd just repeated the cover story she'd been given.
We looked at Nadia's previous account activity and her circumstances at the time. In our view – while it was true the bank's staff had asked some questions – Nadia's behaviour and the nature of the transactions should have prompted them to follow the banking protocol: an initiative that involves branch staff getting the police involved if, after asking questions, they have concerns about a customer's transactions.
If the bank had asked more questions and followed the protocol, it was very likely this sophisticated social engineering scam would have been prevented. So we told the bank to pay Nadia the £100,000 she'd lost, with interest.
One instance of IT failure can affect millions of people – and businesses aren't always doing enough to put things right
This year millions of people were affected by failures in online banking systems. The complaints we saw arising from these incidents reflected the wide range of consequences they can have – from minor inconvenience, to major distress. We needed to remind the banks to look at customers' individual circumstances when putting things right.
More and more people are banking online: during 2018, Office for National Statistics figures suggested 69% now do so, compared with 35% ten years ago. Although people value the convenience of being able to log in whenever they want to, a greater reliance on IT means greater potential for problems when things go wrong.
Events this year showed that the scale of just one instance of IT failure can be enormous. For example, IT trouble at TSB saw many of its 1.9 million customers locked out of their accounts. Which? revealed that a major IT shutdown that stops customers making payments happens to at least one UK bank every day.
This was one of the reasons behind the increase we saw in banking complaints – and we worked quickly and flexibly in response to this demand, setting up a dedicated helpline for TSB customers. We regularly fed back to the regulator on what we were seeing, talked to TSB about areas it needed to improve, and captured and monitored the key issues. So far, we've resolved over 8,000 cases involving TSB.
In some cases, we found banks hadn't done enough to consider, and make up for, the trouble, upset and other repercussions that IT failure had caused. Customers had needed to go to the trouble and frustration of complaining to get things put right – which wouldn't have been necessary if the bank had acted quickly and pragmatically, and considered the individual impact in the first place. And banks hadn't done enough at an early stage to recognise that, for certain customers, 'business as usual' complaint procedures weren't appropriate.
We've helped thousands of people who've had trouble with short-term loans – but we're still seeing too much unsustainable lending
We're hearing from more and more people who have had trouble after being lent money. There has been a huge rise in high-cost short-term lending complaints, in the context of increases across consumer credit. We're concerned that businesses are failing to assess the affordability of debt, and aren't learning enough from the complaints we've resolved.
The story of what we've seen in high-cost short-term lending this year is a story of vulnerability. In too many cases, customers of short-term lenders have been left to struggle with unsustainable and persistent debt, exacerbating what is likely to be their already vulnerable situations.
Typically, this plays out through instances of repeat lending, where businesses provide high-cost credit – one loan after another – over many months and often years, even after it's become clear that the borrower can't repay what they owe.
To help lenders stop these situations arising, we've published decisions that set out our thinking on this, which are available on our website. Some of the payday loans we're seeing were taken out many years ago – and we've needed to explain to lenders the questions they should ask borrowers before telling them it's too late to complain.
The collapses of Wonga last summer and of Curo Transatlantic in February were disappointing for everyone involved – but especially for borrowers. Our work on complaints against these businesses had to stop at the point they entered administration – which means people are having to wait for the administrator's assessment, and are likely to only receive a fraction of the compensation they're owed.
The FCA made some important interventions this year, including "Dear CEO" letters, its high-cost credit review, and the introduction of a price cap in the rent-to-own sector. These interventions address poor practice we've seen – and make specific reference to complaints we've received.
We're already receiving significantly more complaints this year than last for other types of credit. For guarantor loans, for example, complaints rose by 152% and some of the practice we've seen has given cause for concern.
We'll continue to work with businesses – and with claims management companies (CMCs) and solicitors – to share our insight so that they can make sure their customers get a fair answer as quickly as possible.
- Case study: Billy takes on unaffordable payday debt
Billy took out five loans with a payday lender over the course of seven months. The lender said it did some credit checks and an income and expenditure assessment before providing each loan. And based on what it saw from this information, it thought the loans were affordable it was reasonable to lend to Billy on each occasion.
However, Billy complained to us saying the lender had irresponsibly provided him with five unaffordable loans. We thought what the lender had done was proportionate for the first two loans. But we also believed that it wasn't proportionate to keep doing the same thing from loan three onwards. So the lender didn't do enough to check Billy was going to be able to pay these loans off.
By the time of loan three, the credit check showed that Billy taken out a lot of payday loans in the month before. The amount Billy was lent for loan three was double the amount of the previous ones. And the amounts lent for loans four and five weren't any lower either. The other information we'd been provided to show what a proportionate check is likely to have looked like showed that in one month Billy borrowed more than his entire monthly salary from payday lenders.
This all meant the lender should have noticed the loans from loan three onwards were unsustainable despite what its checks might have suggested. The fact that Billy was applying for so many loans, which were for increasing amounts, in such quick succession was a clear indication that Billy was unable to meet his monthly expenses and getting trapped in a spiral of debt.
We told the lender to refund all the interest Billy paid on loans three to five. We also said it should work remove all reference to the loans from his credit file – the number of loans and the amounts meant that recording anything about these loans was adverse.
Flexible car finance has put new cars within more people's reach – but are these deals always affordable?
New cars aren't cheap – and on the face of it, car finance is making them accessible to a lot more people. However, we're concerned that some businesses may not be doing enough to check people can afford the finance agreements they're signing up to.
In last year's annual review, we said that for the most part complaints about motor finance were about problems with the vehicles themselves, or smallprint that people felt hadn't been made clear.
For example, under arrangements such as personal contract purchases (PCPs), there are often mileage limits and criteria about what state the car should be in if it's returned during or at the end of the term. Some people tell us these criteria weren't made clear – and they've been hit with big charges.
We also see complaints where it's clear that car finance businesses are doing risk-based assessments rather than affordability checks. We've told businesses it's not good enough just to rely on credit files – they need to look into whether people can actually afford the repayments.
- Case study: Claire struggles with unaffordable car finance
Claire came to us for help when her car finance agreement left her in financial difficulties. She'd bought a secondhand car for £14,000, and agreed to monthly payments of £400 over three years. Soon after the agreement started, she found herself struggling with the repayments. Claire contacted the finance company, returned the car and voluntarily terminated the finance agreement. However, the finance company told Claire she still had an outstanding balance of £7,000 to pay.
Claire then complained to the finance company that it hadn't done enough to check that she could afford the repayments before agreeing to the finance. It didn't agree, and said that when applying for the finance, Claire had passed the credit check and declared an income of £1,600 each month.
We asked Claire for all the information she'd provided for her credit application. We also asked the finance company for all the details it had checked before it made a decision. We agreed that the income Claire had disclosed was correct, but there was no consideration of her existing monthly expenditure. Claire had been living at home with her parents, but several months before taking out the finance she had moved into a rental flat.
We noted what the finance company had said about Claire passing a credit check, but when we looked at Claire's credit history, we found other details that suggested that she wouldn't have been able to afford the repayments. She was severely overdrawn on one of her bank accounts, and in arrears on many other credit agreements, where the repayments were as small as £20 a month. We felt that the checks the finance company did when considering Claire's application weren't reasonable or proportionate, and had it made the appropriate level of checks it should have been clear that Claire wasn't able to afford the repayments. As the deal should not have been agreed, we thought it was unfair for Claire to be expected to pay money for a car she had returned.
We told the finance company to cancel the agreement so that Claire had nothing more to pay. We also said the agreement should be removed from her credit file. Because Claire had been able to use the car for a number of months before returning it, we thought the finance company should keep some of the repayments. We worked this out using the cash value of the car and the length of time Claire had used the car for. We then told the finance company to refund any overpayment above this figure, along with the original deposit and interest on these amounts.
total complaints about insurance in 2018/2019
42% rise in buildings insurance complaints
Read our insurance stories of the year
Some insurers haven't done enough to treat customers fairly at renewal time
Nearly everyone needs some form of insurance at some point in their lives. But not everyone has the time and energy to negotiate the best deal, every time they get a new product or renew an old one. Most just want the peace of mind that they're covered if the worst happens – and they trust their insurer to charge them a fair price for their individual risk. However, some insurers have taken advantage of this, and leave some of their long-term customers worse off.
Loyalty doesn't always pay. For some time now, we've been hearing from people who feel they've been unfairly penalised for staying with the same insurer for many years, having discovered that they're paying more than new customers for the same product and cover.
The debate stepped up a gear in 2018. In April's ombudsman news, we shared what we were seeing – and in September, Citizens Advice made a super-complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority, suggesting that long-term customers were paying more across many industries. It estimated that around 12 million people were paying a loyalty penalty for their home insurance.
We've been clear with insurers that it's not good enough to keep hiking prices year-on-year, without checking their customer is engaged in the process. Some of the worst cases we've seen have involved people that could be considered vulnerable – and this is reflected in the fact that many of these complaints are brought by concerned relatives.
Insurers have a general responsibility to treat their customers fairly. Even the most engaged people need to feel confident that they're not being penalised. Customers aren't party to the complexities of how prices are set, so are relying on insurers to do the right thing.
If we decide that hasn't been the case, we'll tell insurers to recalculate the premiums and refund any overpayment. We've seen some insurers begin to change their pricing models, and we'll continue to work with regulators and businesses to ensure this momentum continues.
- Case study: Richard is unfairly penalised for loyalty to his insurer
Richard was a retired widower. His wife had looked after their financial affairs for many years, and since her death he hadn't kept an eye on the bills, most of which were paid by direct debit. The couple had taken out their home insurance with their mortgage through their bank many years before. The loan had long been paid off, and they'd kept their home insured on the same policy.
Richard asked his daughter to look at his finances. She was shocked that Richard was paying well over £1,000 for his buildings and contents cover. He lived in a two-bedroom house and had few contents of any great value. She searched on the bank's website and was offered a policy that more than met Richard's needs for £200. It was provided by the same insurer too. So she complained to the insurer on Richard's behalf.
The insurer told us that the policy Richard had was a legacy one. It no longer offered this to new customers and the questions it now asked of customers to determine risk were more comprehensive. The insurer said that both the new and the old policies were priced correctly, although it could offer customers discounts if they called up at renewal, or indeed move them on to the alternative policy. But Richard and his wife had never contacted them. And so the policy had automatically renewed with an annual uplift in price.
When we reviewed the annual renewal letters, there was nothing to indicate that there was any need for Richard to get in touch. In fact, the wording discouraged customers from needing to call. If nothing had changed, they were told there was nothing for them to do.
We concluded that the insurer had taken advantage of Richard's lack of information about his policy, or knowledge of new ones. And it hadn't made sufficient effort to prompt him to contact it or otherwise cap his price.
We upheld Richard's complaint and asked the insurer to refund him £1,400, being a proportion of the yearly premiums from when we first thought that he and his wife became subject to potential detriment. We asked the insurer to add interest to that at our usual rate of 8% a year. We also told the insurer to pay Richard £200 compensation for the distress they'd caused.
In the face of extreme weather, insurance hasn't always lived up to its promises
The last year saw some memorable weather: the "Beast from the East" cold snap and the long, hot summer. But for some people, it triggered insurance claims – and we saw spikes in home insurance and building insurance complaints as a result. In many cases, we needed to tell insurers to do more to put things right.
Extreme weather, such as storms, floods and cold snaps, lead to more people claiming on their insurance – and often, this means we receive more complaints. During winter 2017/2018, the country was blanketed in snow, as the so-called Beast from the East bit. Then, last summer, the UK basked in its longest heatwave for 42 years. Each of these events – and the combination of the two extremes – contributed to problems ranging from broken boilers to structural issues with buildings.
Even when an insurance claim is covered, things don't always go smoothly. In previous annual reviews, we've told insurers that communication is key to making things as easy as possible for their customers.
This year, we've found that insurers haven't done enough in a number of cases to recognise the impact of avoidable mistakes in the claims process.
- Case study: Ira disputes her insurer's definition of a storm
Ira contacted us after her insurer rejected a claim she'd made on her buildings insurance when her conservatory roof was damaged by hailstones. Ira was frustrated that, despite widespread media coverage of the bad weather, the insurer didn't agree that it was "storm damage" – and wouldn't cover her claim as a result. The insurer had also said that they wouldn't repair the damage under the "accidental damage" part of Ira's policy, because that only covered glass roofs, and hers was made of polycarbonate.
We asked the insurer for their full policy wording. We noticed that, in contrast to many insurers, they only defined a "storm" in terms of winds reaching a certain level on the Beaufort Scale, without mentioning any other types of weather. When we looked at weather reports from the time Ira's roof had been damaged, these suggested that the weather had been exceptional – including the amount of hail, which was significant and unusual. In fact, the evidence suggested the weather been more intense than other conditions that would have met the insurer's definition of a storm.
Because of this, we decided it wasn't fair or reasonable for the insurer to reject Ira's claim for storm damage. So we told them to settle it in line with the other terms and conditions of the policy.
total complaints about investments and pensions in 2018/2019
24% higher than 2017/2018
Read our investments and pensions stories of the year
We're still seeing unsuitable advice putting retirement plans at risk
Pension transfers are high on regulators' and financial advisers' agendas. We've illustrated the things we consider when looking at complaints, but some transfers are still putting people's retirement savings at risk. We're seeing the results of poor investment advice too – with people advised to invest in risky funds, or in schemes that turned out to be scams or fraudulent.
In our annual review last year, we highlighted the importance of people getting good advice before making critical decisions over their finances, for example when planning for their retirement. Since pension freedoms were introduced in 2015, people have had greater flexibility. But if they don't get suitable advice, their plans could be at risk.
This year, we've continued to see complaints involving pension freedoms where people have transferred out of defined-benefit (DB) occupational schemes to defined-contribution (DC) schemes. About three in ten of these focus on the suitability of advice, and the rest relate to administrative issues, such as delays – where people believe they've missed out on a higher transfer value because a deadline expired. People have also complained about paying to be advised not to transfer – but often this is likely to have been good advice. The FCA starts from the assumption that most people with defined benefits will be better off staying put.
In ombudsman news in autumn 2018, we clarified how we approach these complaints. We held a conference for pensions specialists, and put the issue of DB-to-DC transfers on the agenda there and at our workshops and roundtables with IFAs across the country.
This year we also saw increases in complaints about SIPPs – about 40 new cases per week – both about the advice to get one in the first place and about the SIPP operators, on the basis that they had failed to carry out due diligence either before accepting business from an introducer, or before accepting investments into a customer's SIPP. We'll continue to look at complaints on a case-by-case basis.
Online platforms offer investors convenience – but tech failures have caused serious frustration
As with online banking, trouble with technology can cause a headache for investment platform providers and their customers. During the year, we received hundreds of complaints relating to problems with the transfer of investments. In many cases, shortcomings in providers' customer service had made a bad situation worse.
Compared with other products and services such as banking, we receive relatively few complaints about investments. However, the sums of money involved can be significant. When a large investment fund merged its platform with another last summer, not everyone's investments successfully transferred across – with some lost, and others delayed.
We heard from people who'd experienced delays ranging from weeks to months – or who'd seen parts of their investment portfolios lost altogether – and who were now very concerned that they'd lost money, or the chance to "wrap" their investments in a tax-efficient way. Many also wanted to complain about the poor customer service they had received, as they struggled to establish what was happening and when things would be resolved.
In our view, many complaints could have been avoided if businesses had communicated better as the problem, as well as their response to it, developed. And in the same way as banking IT failure, businesses also needed to consider the individual impact of the problem on particular customers.
Apps for investments, crowdfunding, or consolidated pensions dashboards are increasingly popular, too. We've received a higher number of complaints about these types of platforms (for example, 200% more about crowdfunding this year than last). However, not all of them are regulated, so people aren't necessarily protected if something goes wrong.
As always, even though the technology is new, our advice remains the same. Businesses need to treat customers fairly, considering all their individual circumstances. And for customers, people should take time to understand and ask questions about what they're signing up to, and remember that the value of investments can go down as well as up. And if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
- Case study: Jamal suffers fallout of pension platform upgrade
Jamal complained when an IT systems upgrade by his pension provider led to an overpayment from his platform-based pension. Jamal was paid just under £23,000, instead of the £2,190 he'd expected. He paid it back immediately. But he suffered a loss, because some of his pension assets were sold to fund the overpayment.
After a few months, the business apologised for the error – which was caused by a contractor – and said it wouldn't happen again. It offered a settlement for Jamal's losses, with additional compensation. But Jamal wasn't happy and asked for our help.
He thought that the mistake meant he would pay more tax than he should. When we asked the business, it said it would work with HMRC to fix any problems and refund any losses. But because it hadn't done this before we got involved, we didn't agree its settlement offer was fair.
We agreed that the problems caused by the contractor were unavoidable. But, the business was still responsible for Jamal's losses. And it had taken too long to deal with his complaint. So, we told the business to put things right as soon as possible. We said it should increase the goodwill payment to Jamal, and pay interest on his losses, where appropriate.
total number of PPI complaints we'd received by January 2019
46% of all new complaints were about PPI
We've been preparing for the end of PPI – but it's not over yet
The deadline for complaining to businesses is 29 August – but we'll be dealing with PPI for some time yet. As we move towards the deadline, our flexible approach to getting fair, quick, and informal answers will help us manage uncertain volumes.
It's time for people to decide whether they want to complain to businesses about PPI – and to take action. After the deadline of 29 August, they might still be able to come to us to look into their complaint after a business's final response – which gives them up to six months to contact us if they're unhappy.
In January 2019, we passed a milestone: over two million PPI complaints received. This year, we've resolved over 37,000 more complaints than we received, and we've resolved well over 1.9 million in total. We reached a different kind of milestone in autumn 2018, when for the first time since 2010, PPI complaints made up less than half our total new complaints. Across the year, it made up 46% of all our new complaints.
We've seen the uphold rate for PPI continue to fall, and that reflects the work we've done to help businesses and many claims management companies to learn from and apply our well-established approach: giving consumers fair answers far earlier in the complaint journey. Some of the delays we've seen this year have been outside our control: for example, one CMC plans to judicially review our approach to resolving PPI complaints, which has been affecting our ability to move many cases forward. But for other complaints, CMCs' and businesses' willingness to learn from our approach means fewer cases will need our involvement, and people won't have to wait so long for our answer.
Over the years, PPI has been a major long-term challenge for us. But if one good thing comes out of it, it's the significant experience it's given us, CMCs and businesses, of resolving large volumes of complaints, fairly and efficiently.
Chart: see how PPI complaints have changed over time
Delivering our service
Developing our service
of people we surveyed said they were satisfied with our service
of adults in the UK said they would trust us
of people in the UK have some awareness of us
In a challenging year, we've worked hard to ensure we're meeting people's expectations
It's vital that people trust the decisions we make – even if they didn't get the outcome they wanted. In our busiest year for the last five years, our customer satisfaction has remained high – and we've maintained the confidence of businesses that use us, as well as the public.
We regularly survey people bringing complaints, and businesses, about what we're doing well, and where we need to improve. You can read more about the people we've helped and what they think in our downloadable data.
This year, we faced real challenges with not being able to resolve complaints as quickly as we'd hoped. We know from experience that the length of time people wait is a key driver for satisfaction with our service – and we're working hard to shorten these times. Despite these challenges, we were pleased that satisfaction with our service remained steady. Overall, 63% of people we surveyed said they were satisfied with our service, 79% of businesses said they had confidence in us, and 76% of the public said they trusted us.
We've been prioritising people who urgently need help - for example, people who are in serious financial hardship, have been the victim of fraud, or need clarity about their financial position. And we've also been tackling the root causes of complaints, so that unfairness doesn't arise – for example, in the areas of fraud and scams, and payday lending, which we've highlighted in this annual review.
Changing with the times
Preparing for new jurisdictions
Staying accessible
We're focused on making our service the best it can be, now and for the future
As we look ahead to a time beyond PPI, we're focused on making our service the best it can be, now and for the future. This has included investing in our digital capability, ensuring we stay accessible, and getting ready to take on new responsibilities.
We were set up nearly 20 years ago, and an ongoing challenge has been ensuring that we remain relevant and sustainable as the environment we're working in changes. As we make our plans for the future, we're also drawing on the recommendations of the independent review of our service, commissioned by our Board and published in July 2018.
Over the past few years, we've been investing in our digital capabilities – and this year, we made significant steps forward in several key projects. We've been working on our new case handling system with view to launching it in 2019/2020. This will allow us to provide a more customer-oriented service.
In June 2019, we're launching a new, more accessible website, which will deliver a better user experience – based on testing we've done with people who rely on our online resources. We're planning to launch an online portal later this year for people bringing complaints to us, which will offer a new and more convenient way of communicating.
However, we know that good communication doesn't necessarily mean doing everything online. We've maintained our dedicated practice group focused on the individual needs of people who use our service, however they need or choose to reach us.
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Category Archives: Cultural Appropriation
Pre-Post: Fantasy Counterparts Cultures
So, I promised a post yesterday on the challenges and responses to the challenges of creating unique new cultures for fantasy worlds. But as I was writing my draft, I realized I needed to talk about something else first. You see that post was going to be a response to a common trend in fantasy and what I dislike about it. So I realized I should probably go into that trend, what it is, what I don't like, and what it does do well. On that note:
One of the most common criticisms of is that so much high and epic fantasy is just a pseudo-medieval European setting, with actually quite a few historical simplifications and misunderstandings. Not least of which is because "Medieval" relates to a span of approximately 1000 years following the fall of the Roman Empire in approximately 500 AD to the start of of early modern age in approximately 1500. These dates are rough generalizations, no need to nitpick. My point is that it was a long and complex period over a broad swath of territory, the complexity of which is generally crushed down to knights and feudalism and chivalry. (There has been subversion and counter-exampling of this trope throughout the history of fantasy, but overall, this generalization holds mostly true.)
In order to combat this issue, people began to make more of an effort to use alternate settings than they had in the past. Different cultures and mythologies were incorporated into fantasies in an attempt to ride the wave of pushback against this trope. Which led to the rise of a new over-used trope: Fantasy Counterpart Cultures. (Evil lurks here!) If you don't want to get lost in the wasteland of TVTropes, this is basically when a for-all-intents-and-purposes real world culture is has the serial numbers sanded off in order to become a semi-consistent "new" culture in a fantasy setting. Most commonly seen with Rome, China, and Japan. Occasionally Egypt and Russia. Making up new cultures, which are both consistent and believable, is pretty hard, I think most would agree. Why not just give a new coat of paint and some sweet new rims to an old ride from Earth? People will be able to grok the basics of the culture from prior exposure.
However, there are a few issues with this method. That prior exposure is likely to be made up of stereotypes, misunderstandings, propaganda, and even occasionally down-right racism. You might think you know all about pharaohs and chariots, but did you know that Cleopatra was Greek, not Egyptian? (You're reading a blog about fantasy world-building, so you might, actually.) Most people who aren't history majors probably don't. (Did you know bushido was propaganda?) It can also lead to lazy writing as the author relies too much on reader knowledge to hold together aspects of the story or world.
There are obvious benefits to the method, of course. You can rely on reader knowledge, take world-building shortcuts. It's quicker. It provides an exotic flavor to the world without info-dumps, flowery prose, and intense research and understanding of the world. When well-done, it can be enormously appealing to readers. There's a great deal of Rule of Cool that can be applied to the story, both because of ignorance of historical facts underpinning the real-world culture that inspires the story and the verisimilitude it provides. That way, the writer can "concentrate on a good plot" or build in-depth characters without all the hassle of good world-building. There are outside rules known to everybody which can be exploited for the writer's benefit. The shared cultural context, regardless of its accuracy, can be a major driver in interest in the story.
Bushido is pretty cool as an ethic, much like chivalry. And why not? It was intended that way. It allows for a lot of subversion and the creation of moral dilemmas that can provide depth to characters and explain otherwise odd plot developments. The same for Rome. The legions were a unique military construct. The Empire was both inspiring and open to the sort of darkness that makes for good story-yelling. Same for the Norse Gods. And good historical fiction is fucking hard to do. You have to find a story that fits your goals, or fit a story into the ambiguities and cracks in the historical record. All while doing tons of research. Or you could just create a "new" country in a fantasy world where that convenient but historically inaccurate river location just happens to exist, while all the other stuff is the same. Where there's no inconvenient "fact" to run your perfect plot idea. After all, it's just as hard to create a new living, breathing, believable world as it is to fit non-existent plots into our real world.
But, I'd argue, it's a lot more interesting. As I'll discuss in the next post.
Posted by atsiko on May 17, 2017 in Con-worlding, Cultural Appropriation, Fantasy, Fantasy/Sci-fi, genre, Ideas, Speculative Reality, World-building, worldbuilding
Tags: conworlding, Fantasy, fantasy counterpart culture, japan, medieval europe, pseudo-Europe, pseudo-medieval, rome, world-building, Worldbuilding
Linguistics and SFF: Appropriation and Dialect
Last time on Linguistics and SFF: Orthography and Etymology
An oft-debated topic in all fiction is the subject of using dialect as dialogue. Many famous writers have done it, and many not-so-famous writers have tried it, to varying degrees of success. Since dialects are a very linguisticky topic, I thought I'd take a look at why and how writers use them, some of the effect of using them, and how it all relates to the whole debate on cultural appropriation.
First, a few thoughts on dialect:
1. A dialect is a unique language system characteristic of a group of speakers.
2. A dialect is a variety of a major language carrying connotations of social, cultural, or economic subordination to the culture which speaks the dominant language.
These two definitions exist simultaneously. For our purposes, the second one is the most relevant.
Dialects under the second definition are culturally, socially, and economically stigmatized by the dominant culture. Speaking a dialect is often portrayed by dominant cultural institutions as just "bad [Dominant Language]". For example, "bad English". (We'll keep this example, since I'm discussing literature from primarily English-speaking countries.) Many children are taught in school to speak "proper English" in school, and punished for using their native dialect. "Proper English" actually takes a few forms: In America, it is a dialect known as "Standard American English(SAE)", which is most similar to Midwestern dialects of American English. In England, there is Received Pronunciation(RP).
Most other countries with official "languages", have a similar pattern of official and unofficial dialects. What is considered a language is often up to whichever dialects can get state support, and it has been said that "A language is merely a dialect with an army and a navy." Or, in the case of France, "a dialect with a national Academy."
Almost all other dialects are usually considered inferior or degraded versions of the official dialect.
So, onto the use of dialect in fiction.
For the most part, dialogue in English-language novels is written in the standard form of written English, which reflects more or less the standard form of spoken English in the country in which it is printed. Although, depending on the orthography used, this reflection could be rather cloudy or warped. Dialect, then, is represented in an attempt at "phonetic" spelling and non-standard vocabulary and grammar.
Most commonly, because the author does not often speak the dialect natively that they are attempting to represent, dialect in fiction falls back on stereotypes of usage related to the cultural perception of the spoken dialect. This can lead to a continuation of prejudice and stereotypes, and is also a form of linguistic and cultural appropriation, as a member of the dominant culture makes use of minority culture for their own ends. Rarely in the cases we're examining are these ends malicious. But they are often still quite problematic.
There are many English dialects that have been popularized in mass culture, with varying degrees of difference presented. For example: Italian American English, Chinese American English, African American English, Cockney English, Appalachian English, and Southern English. In fact, they are so parodied, mocked, and appropriated that they have "accents" associated with them. The cheesy Italian accent a la Mario, the "Oy Guvnah" of Cockney, and "tree dorra" of Chinese American English.
Some of these "dialects" are actually accents or inter-languages, rather than stable dialects. However, they are all commonly referred to as "dialect" (or occasionally "accent") in regards to their representation in fiction. And for the most part, rather than actual depictions of the stated dialect, what is really present is the set of stereotypical markers associated with the dialect by mainstream culture.
Next time, I'll look at some examples, both made-up and used in novels, of dialect appropriation.
Next time on Linguistics and SFF: Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code
Posted by atsiko on August 9, 2013 in Cultural Appropriation, Linguistics
Tags: accent, cultural appropriation, dialect, language, linguistic appropriation, Linguistics, SFF, speculative fiction
Linguistics and SFF: Signs and Signals and Story-telling
In my past few posts, I have been using the words "signal", "sign", and "signifier", and rather haphazardly at that. But these are real linguistic concepts, and that have concrete meanings. And, perhaps more relevant to this post, these concepts can be useful tools in constructing not only your speculative world, but the character arcs and themes underlying your narrative.
So, first some definitions:
Language is made up of a set of signs and the rules that govern their interactions. You can, for most purposes, consider a sign to be a word in context.
Every sign has three(1) parts:
The signifier is the group of sounds (or letters, for written words) that make up the word.
The signified is what we think of when we hear or see the word.
The referent is what the word refers to in the context in which we encounter it.
For example: we have a sign with the signifier "president". It's signified is the head of the executive branch of the US government. (Strictly speaking, that's just its denotation. You can include the connotation, as well.) And the referent currently would be Barack Obama. In 1992, the signifier and signified would have been the same, but the word would have a different referent when used in the US in the absence of any modifiers.
Now, when working in speculative fiction, you can use these aspects of a word (or sign) to decide what English word to use, or if you might like to use a foreign word.
For example, what do you want to call your political units? We have many choices for this, many possible signs. We have empires. An empire is a political unit consisting of many smaller states brought together by forces–most commonly conquest. An empire can have connotations of bureaucracy, soaring capitals and primitive backwaters. There are many real-world referents, such as sophisticated Rome, far-flung Alexandria, brutal Azteca, and powerful Britain.
And you can capitalize on aspects of those various referents, much as you could capitalize on the various connotations. Or, you could pick a kingdom, and capitalize on the myriad kingdoms throughout history. The same is true for anything, from religion, to clothing, to character.
In the next post, I'll look at how you can make use of the written form of a sign in your world-building, and I'll give some examples of foreign signs and how these concepts can influence their use.
Posted by atsiko on July 18, 2013 in Cultural Appropriation, Linguistics
Tags: Linguistics, SFF, sginal, sign, story-telling, world-building
Linguistics and SFF: Language and Exoticism
Last time on Linguistics and SFF: Why Non-English Words?
One of the most powerful abilities of language in fiction–and this is true in general, although we're going to be talking about dialogue and foreign language in particular–is the ability to signify the unfamiliar. Going back to our previous posts, I can say the word "samurai", and immediately we know that we're no longer in our own personal culture. Unless of course, we're Japanese.
To make a quick distinction, the unfamiliar is not the same as the exotic. There's a perspective and an attitude in exoticism that the merely unfamiliar doesn't have. With the unfamiliar, we lose our bearings and don't really know where we are. The danger of the exotic is that we think we do know where we are, even though we don't.
Now, when I said "samurai", many people who are not Japanese may have believed they knew the world I was invoking. And that could have been true, if I was looking for the exotic Japanese ideal that informs Western stereotypes. But what if I said "Heian-era Japan"? You know we're in Japan because I've said so, and you might even know if I just said "the Heian era". "Heian" after all sounds like a Japanese word. But either way, you probably wouldn't feel on as firm of ground as when I was just talking about samurai.
The fact that I can use words that are equally Japanese, and yet which conjure such competing feelings in the person reading them should suggest a bit about the power of words as signifiers. And as humans have amply demonstrated, for better or worse, if we can do something, it's hard to keep us from doing it.
Humans will always use language to signal things, so the question to consider is not ho to get them to stop, but how to get them to do it better, more respectfully. There's nothing inherently wrong in using words to signal the approach of unfamiliarity. It only becomes exoticization when it's approached from the wrong angle and for the wrong reasons.
So, the prime use foreign words by a story-teller is to signal unfamiliarity. But how can we do that without falling into the trap of exoticizing?
1. Figure out why you want to invoke this specific unfamiliarity. Is it to explore a culture that interests you? Is it to speculate on the consequences of events in a specific context? Or might it be because you're tired of the "same-old medieval pseud-Europe". Or maybe an escapist fantasy? The first two reasons can be legitimate, but the other two are taken you dangerously close to the territory of exoticism, if not over the line completely.
2. Figure out whether the culture you're invoking is really the culture you think you're invoking. This is mostly for real-world cultures or cultures transparently inspired by them. But all of these steps can apply to a constructed culture, as well. This is the point where you start doing preliminary research. You don't have to learn everything about the culture or the language. But you should be able to spot most of the big holes in your perception of that culture. If the two images don't agree, seriously consider not trying to invoke your false idea of this culture.
3. Figure out whether the invocator you're using really invokes the culture you intend it to. Does it signal what you want it to signal? Does that word really mean what you think it means? Are there connotations, or folklore relating to that word that makes it unsuitable for the use you intend? Do you really need to resort to such a problematic signal? Do you need a linguistic signal at all? Is there any reason you can't just use English? Does your desire for an unfamiliar "atmosphere" really outweigh the danger of engaging in linguistic (or cultural) appropriation?
4. No one is a representative of their entire culture. But that doesn't mean that you can't run your signals and the work in general by someone who has a bit more experience with the language/culture than you. Make sure that your signifiers match up with what you want to signify. That possible disconnect is what's going to get you in trouble. (I'm assuming a good-faith desire to respect the other culture here.)
Now, if you've passed all of those tests, then you have a chance of having done this right. It's simply impossible for someone who isn't a native speaker(liver) to never make a mistake. But if you follow those steps, you should have weeded out the big errors.
Now, a final piece of advice: It can be reasonable in some cases, especially the case of "inspiration" to move away from historical/linguistic/cultural accuracy. But the farther away you move, the more careful you want to be about what signals you use. Signals, linguistic or otherwise, are all about manipulating expectations. That's why the four steps are focused so firmly on your own expectations. It's hard to know how to signal others if you don't know how you perceive those signals yourself. But because the expectations of your use of foreign words are so firmly rooted in the real world where those signals were developed, moving away from reality not only weakens the effectiveness of the signals, but makes it possible for them to betray you.
Next time on Linguistics and SFF: Orthography and Exoticism
Tags: exoticism, language, Linguistics, SFF, signals, signifier, speculative fiction
Linguistics and SFF: Why Non-English Words?
Last time on Linguistics and SFF: Connotations and the Failures of Dictionary Definitions
One of the issues that often gets brought up in cases of linguistic appropriation is why the author wanted to use non-English words. There are a few possible reasons for using non-English words in an English language novel:
1. To create a sense of exoticism, or an atmosphere associated with a certain real-world culture
2. To create a sense of otherness compared to the perspective culture (the protag's culture)
3. To express concepts not expressible in English without a wordy paraphrase
4. To signal to the reader that the culture being presented differs from their own
5. To distinguish when a character is speaking a language that is not the perspective character's native language
In this post, I will address the first reason, since it's arguable that it is the most common, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Each of these reasons have positive and negative ideas underlying them. Many people have argued, and often convincingly, that exoticism is never an acceptable reason to appropriate someone else's culture–or in our case, language. Nisi Shawl quotes a beautiful if uncomfortable poem by Hiromi Goto in her article Appropriate Cultural Appropriation:
Removed.  Please see the full version at the link above.
The problem with exoticism is that it doesn't truly relfect the culture in question, but only those attributes that the exoticizer finds attractive. Of course, SFF is not necessarily about accurately depicting real-world cultures.
However, what exoticism does is perpetuate (sometimes harmful, often disrespectful) stereotypes of real-world cultures. And even if they may not think in those terms, that's exactly what the story-teller making use of it wants. Because the goal of invoking that culture, with language or otherwise, is to bring the reader in mind of the cultural stereotypes that society has instilled in them towards the target culture.
To make an analogy to my previous discussion of words, what the exoticizer is invoking are the connotations associated with the target culture, instead of the denotation. And language is a powerful invocation of culture, because words signify the cultural perceptions. To use Japanese and Japan as an example, "samurai" is a symbol of the culture, especially in the West. The Western concept of samurai, based on beliefs of which many have proven to be erroneous, is a strong invocator of Japanese culture.
But samurai has been established in its position as an English loan-word. It by itself is not enough to call forth the stereotypes of Japan to complete the atmosphere and the appropriation. But then we have the concept of respect/honor/humility, part of the Western perception of Bushido–the way of the warrior. And so Kristoff, for example, makes use of honorifics in his dialogue. This appropriation–and an incorrect one, at that–calls forth stereotypes of Japan that fit Kritsoff's character arc, in this case, the conflict between duty and righteousness.
As an example of exoticizing, I'd like to do some linguistic and anthropological analysis of the concept of Bushido. Bushido is a concept invented at the end of the 19th century to reflect the warrior ethos in Japan. As with many such concepts or supposed ethical systems–such as the Western code of chivalry–Bushido represents and over-simplification of a myriad of personal and local philosophies/codes of ethics present in Japan during the various historical periods during which the samurai were a prominent aspect of Japanese culture, society, and politics.
Inazo Nitobe wrote and published Bushido: The Soul of Japan in 1900, as an original english language(OEL) text. It was eventually translated into Japanese after achieving popularity in the English-speaking world, influencing such people and organizations as Robert Baden-Powell, found of the Boy Scouts. Many people don't even realize that one of the most iconic aspects of Japanese culture was not even an originally Japanese invention. Although the concepts espoused in the book were rooted in some historically accurate ideals of Japanese culture, thus the enormous popularity of the book with Japanese citizens of the time, it is not an accurate depiction of the way in which so-called "feudal" Japanese culture worked. Primary sources, such as letters, diaries, and even books of ethics written by many Japanese lords and warriors, do show that there were ideas of ethical behavior that reflect many of the concepts of bushido. But rather than a universal code of ethics, they were the results of many people with a shared history and culture based in Shinto, Buddhism, and a certain political and social climate.
The construction of the word Bushido is interesting in its etymology. "Do" has the meaning of "way" or "path". It comes from the morpheme /to/ in Japanese, as seen in Shinto, "the way of the gods", and other similar belief systems. "Bushi", a Japanese word for "warrior" comes from the Chinese "bu" and "shi", which originally was a compound meaning not "warrior", but translating roughly as "to stop the spear". And "samurai" itself actually referred to servants or retainers, rather than warriors in its original conception, and it was used by the aristocratic Kuge class, rather than the warriors who preferred bushi.
Getting back to our main topic, the desire of the story-teller to romanticize the connotations of a foreign culture rather than explore and appreciate its denotation is one of the main factors that marks something as appropriation. Goto's poem touches on this idea in the stanza quoted about (#5), and the other stanzas quoted in Shawl's article, pointing out the idea of the appropriation as art, the shared love of the romanticism inherent in most appropriation, and the lifelessness of the metaphorical girl in the kimono. What the appropriator loves so much is no the culture itself, but what they can get out of it, and when that culture crumbles to dust as Goto describes, it's okay, because the appropriator can merely build it up again. It is, after all, merely their own creation, and not a living, breathing thing which matters to others because they live it.
In the next post, I will address reason number four, since it serves as a powerful set-up for the remaining reasons, and ties in so strongly with what I had to say in this one. In order to understand the use of language in fiction, it is necessary to understand why it has such a powerful effect on us.
Next time on Linguistics and SFF: Language and Exoticism
Tags: Fantasy, foreign language, linguistic appropriation, Linguistics, Science Fiction, SFF, world-building
Linguistics and SFF: Connotations and the Failures of Dictionary Definitions
Last time on Linguistics and SFF: Shadow and Bone and the Russian Language
If you've been reading my posts on linguistic appropriation and foreign languages in SFF, you might have noticed that a great deal of the problem comes from the misuse or misunderstanding of foreign words and their meanings. There's a fairly simple reason for this, and it's something that online machine translation efforts have greatly contributed to:
Words have a denotation, the literal meaning of the word: "cat" is a four-legged animal of the genus Felis. Further, words have a set of connotations, the set of cultural or emotional associations that are connected to the word. Cats are often considered solitary, imperious, curious, etc. Connotations are what lend words to the various metaphors (and more generally, all forms of analogy) found in human language. Then, many words have cultural or historical baggage. Finally, there is idiomatic language, which provides another layer of meaning to word.
How does this relate to linguistic appropriation and translation failure? Dictionaries, the most commonly available resource for learning the meaning of foreign words most often include only the denotation of a word, and very occasionally limited historical, idiomatic, or connotational information: ethnic slurs in a dictionary may contain a note that the word is a pejorative.
And, if that isn't enough, there's etymology. This could be construed as a historical association,but I think it has enough relevance to be treated as its own category. Etymology is the linguistic history of a word: when it first entered the language, the language it came from, changes it has undergone even while part of the current language. All of these things are relevant. Consider English. Words of a Latin or Greek source are often considered more sophisticated than words of Germanic origin. People who speak mostly in Latin or Greek roots are often considered elitist or snobbish as opposed to those who speak with Germanic roots and grammar, who can be considered un-intelligent, or homey. This is an association that all native speakers of the language make. But it may not be immediately obvious to a non-native speaker.
Similarly, Japanese has a strong Chinese influence, especially in literature or religion, for example. Japanese words with Chinese origins are used and perceived differently, than those of native Japanese origin. Many languages have similar dichotomies. Loan words are perceived differently, and a non-native speaker may not know which words are loan words, and whether their source language gives them negative or positive associations.
In order to use a language that is not your own effectively and respectfully, you have to be aware of all of these things. What may seem like a perfectly reasonable translation may shock or offend a native speaker. One of the things a writer has to accept when using a language that is not their own is that they will mess up. They'll miss something. It's inevitable when you consider everything that goes into choosing even a single word in the mind of a native speaker. But you can do things to lessen the chance of such an occurrence, even before you consult a native speaker.
What you cannot do is attempt to include a real foreign language in your story just by consulting an online bilingual dictionary.
And of course the same issues apply with any historical figure, or pop culture icon, or myth, setting.
Next time on Linguistics and SFF: Why Non-English Words?
Posted by atsiko on July 16, 2013 in Cultural Appropriation, Linguistics, World-building
Tags: connotation, foreign language, foreign language dictionaries, linguistcs, SFF, translation
Linguistics and SFF: Shadow and Bone and the Russian Language
Last time on Linguistics and SFF: Stormdancer and the Japanese Language
In today's post, I'm going to analyze the linguistics involved in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone. This post is going to be a little different than the last few posts, because the differences between Ravka and Russia are more exaggerated. However, it's ingenuous to suggest that this separation is an excuse for ignorance of the Russian language and culture, or linguistics itself. Bardugo uses actual Russian in the book alongside her faux-Russian, and that leaves us an opening to analyze not only the linguistics of the book itself, but the linguistic appropriation present here, and the stereotypes that exemplify it.
(Disclaimer: I am not a fluent speaker of Russian or any Slavic language, nor am I an expert in Russian linguistics.)
First, I would like to direct you to a previous post on the topic by another blogger:
1. Rose Lemberg posts on the historical linguistics of Indo-European and its relevance to the Ravka discussion. This takes a slightly different approach to mine, but the linguistics is spot-on, and it's a great perspective on the issue.
2. About Friday posts on some of the mis-use of Russian in the book.
I'll be addressing some things that overlap with these posts, because they make note of some of the most egregious issues. I hope that for those overlaps, I will have something useful to add. I am also writing this post with the book right on my lap, going through page by page looking for non-English language to analyze.
Now, let us begin:
We begin on the two pages containing the map:
The first non-English word/name we see is "Djerholm." Now, I don't know the origin of "djer", and I can't find any references to it as a word or name. However, the word "holm" is of Old Norse extraction from "holmr", meaning a small island or flood area near a river. Now, Djerholm is on the sea, and we are given little information about it. It appears to be the capital of a large nation of Swedish inspiration to the north of Ravka. It's hard to say whether the author was aware of the meaning, or chose the word for its Swedish/Norse "flavor". Djerholm is on the coast of "Fjerda". It just so happens that "Fjerda" is a Norwegian word meaning "fourth". Hard to say if this was intentional, although there's nothing in the book to say it is.
Another word that stands out is "Novokribirsk". That looks a bit familiar… Could it be that it sounds a lot like Novosibirsk, Russia's third most popular city? And not only that, but across the Unsea, we have Kribirsk, making it clear that the "novo-" is the Russian morpheme meaning "new". This lends quite a bit of credence to the claim that the language spoken in Ravka is in fact Russian.
We also have the country of Shu Han in the south. It's hard to be more obvious about a pseudo-China than to call it "Han", the name for one of China's major ethnic groups and also a historical dynasty.
Now we arrive at the first page, and already some Russian, or whatever.
"malenchki" is said to mean "little ghost". Well, the word "malen(j)kij" in Russian does mean "small", but I'm wondering where the "ghost" fits in here. Perhaps my Russian just isn't good enough? I'd love for someone to help me out with this one.
The next word is "troika", which means a triplet. I don't have the grasp of idiomatic Russian that Lemberg and Friday do, so I'll have to assume that the issues they mention with the use of the word are correct.
Then we have "kvas", which is a drink made from fermented grain. It is weakly alcoholic, but not liquor as Bardugo apparently thinks.
Next we come across a "kefta", which is apparently a robe of some kind. According to Bardugo herself, it's based off the Russian kaftan. A bit of a linguistic digression: the term "kaftan" comes from Persian and described a form of robe. Either way, I would classify this as actually the right way to use inspiration. The word is similar but not the same because the garment s not the same.
Finallly, we have the word "Grisha", which is appropriately Russian sounding, but a rather odd thing to call a group of soldiers or mages. As Friday mentions, it's the diminutive of Grigori, the Russian form of Gregory.
That's from the first three pages of the novel. Since we've mentioned, Grisha, I'm going to go over the name issues present in the book in the next post. And then hopefully after that, we'll move through a few more pages of the novel.
Next time on Linguistics and SFF: Connotations and the Failures of the Dictionary Definitions
Tags: language, linguistic appropriation, Linguistics, russian, SFF, shadow and bone

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Our client, Aquent, the world's largest marketing and creative staffing company, has announced today the acquisition of pricejamieson, the UK's premier consultancy providing recruitment solutions to the digital, media and marketing communications sectors. The acquisition will make Aquent the leader in the media, digital and marketing communications permanent recruitment market in the UK and will enable Aquent to provide its clients with a single comprehensive solution for all their global marketing, communications and creative staffing needs. The union of Aquent and pricejamieson in London creates the largest Aquent market globally and the largest single provider of marketing, communications and creative recruitment solutions in any city anywhere in the world.


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Q: Getting both final price and out of stock products in Magento I'm working on some code for a Magento module and I've noticed a pretty major issue that I can't seem to find a clean solution for.
Basically, I want to fetch a collection of products as follows:
$products = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')
    ->setStoreId($storeId) // $storeId is set earlier in the code
    ->addAttributeToSelect('*')
    ->addFinalPrice()
    ->addStoreFilter()
    ->addUrlRewrite()
    ->getItems();

If I do this then in another place in my code where I'm iterating over this collection I can call getMinimalPrice() on individual bundle products and actually get the price of the product.
However, as long as I'm calling addFinalPrice() when fetching the collection all out of stock products are excluded from the collection. But, if I remove this call to addFinalPrice() then it's not possible to use getMinimalPrice() on bundle products (well, you can call it all you want but you won't get any data back.
So, I find myself in a problematic situation, how do I fetch a collection in a way that fetches all products, regardless of if they're in stock or not, while still fetching enough price data to actually get the price of my bundle products?

A: I am not sure it will solve your problem but there is function called addPriceData in the product collection model that helps to gather the information about the prices when you load the collection (instead of addFinalPrice). It can help to get the minimal price when the product is out of stock. For the final price, you can get it with the function getFinalPrice of Mage_Catalog_Model_Product or Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Type_Price. The second model has many interesting function for prices.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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(5th MMGM) Eden's Wish by M. Tara Crowl (interview & giveaway)
Check out the full 5th Annual March MG Madness schedule and enter to win a box of middle-grade books.
Eden's Wish
(Eden of the Lamp #1)
By M. Tara Crowl
Disney-Hyperion
All twelve years of Eden's life have been spent in an antique oil lamp. She lives like a princess inside her tiny, luxurious home; but to Eden, the lamp is nothing but a prison. She hates being a genie. All she wants, more than anything, is freedom.
When Eden finds a gateway to Earth within the lamp, she takes her chance and enters the world she loves. And this time, she won't be sent back after three wishes.
Posing as the new kid at a California middle school, Eden revels in all of Earth's pleasures--but quickly learns that this world isn't as perfect as she always thought it was. Eden soon finds herself in the middle of a centuries-old conflict between powerful immortals. A ruthless organization run by a former genie will stop at nothing to acquire the lamp and its power--even hurt Tyler and Sasha, the new mortal friends who have given Eden a home. To save her friends and protect the lamp's magic, Eden must decide once and for all where she belongs.
goodreads / disney-hyperion
Eden's Escape
Sept.6, 2016
Eden's new life on earth begins in New York City under the guidance of her new guardian: Pepper, a petite, bubbly genie alum who's also a Broadway actress. Before she has a chance to settle in, though, Eden is whisked away for a granting--only to find herself trapped in a laboratory. David Brightly, owner of the world's leading tech company, cares more about tapping into the lamp's power than making a wish and starts performing tests on Eden. With Brightly's plasma shield around the lamp, Eden has no way home. Left without a choice, she escapes the lab and goes on the run.
After her daring exit, Eden finds herself on the streets of Paris--home to Electra's headquarters. Left in a strange city with a price on her head (courtesy of scheming Brightly), Eden has to keep her wits about her. She dons a chic disguise and flits around Paris incognito, investigating Brightly Tech. Assisted by Pepper and her old adversary Bola, as well as some new friends, Eden embarks on a quest to retrieve the lamp and protect the secrets of the genie legacy.
What three words best describe your Eden of the Lamp series?
Adventure, friendship, freedom
Can you give us your best one sentence pitch to convince readers, especially reluctant readers, to give Eden's Wish a try?
Most of us have thought about what three wishes you'd make from a genie—but have you ever imagined what it would be like to actually be a genie?
Grab a copy of Eden's Wish and answer the following:
favorite chapter?
Chapter 24, the last one. I love a good ending, and I loved writing this one. I think it leaves you wondering what's going to happen in the next book, Eden's Escape, which will be released this September!
favorite page?
favorite setting?
The lamp's interior. When Eden's inside, it seems like a mansion. She sleeps in a canopy bed, with a chandelier glittering above and a massive closet filled with beautiful clothes. There's a decked-out lesson room, a study with bookshelves that rise stories high, and a spiral staircase that Eden likes to slide down. I loved imagining all the luxurious details on the inside of what looks like a dingy oil lamp.
flip to a random page and give us a 1-2 sentences teaser?
On page 198, Eden's new friend Tyler makes a wish that could give her the life she's dreamed about. But will the lamp's magic allow that wish to be granted?
What inspired Eden's Wish and the series? How did the idea come to be?
One day I was thinking about genies, and I started to imagine what it would be like to be a genie. The idea of it is sort of glamorous, but in reality, I think I'd hate it. You'd have no windows, no fresh air, no friends, and no freedom. You'd have to grant wishes for anyone who rubbed the lamp, but you'd have no power within your own life. I wanted to write a character who's in that position, but finds a way to change things.
Can you tell us a bit about your heroine, Eden? What makes her unique, what do you love about her?
Eden is the first one in a long line of genies who wants to be a regular girl. She lives in the lamp with her masters, Xavier and Goldie, who have raised every genie. They tell her that granting wishes is her destiny, and that she's part of a legacy like no other. But Eden has fallen in love with Earth during her grantings. All she wants is to live there. Her desire to be free and explore the world sets her apart from the genies who have come before her, but so does the fact that she does something about it.
I love Eden's curious, adventurous spirit. I love the way she loves the world: its sunshine, oceans, grass, mountains, trees, and billions of mortal humans. I love that she fights for who she is and what she wants. I love that she dares to take risks. And maybe most of all, I love the way she's able to change. She's stubborn, but when she learns a lesson, she takes it to heart and lets it change her for the better.
If you met a genie, what would you wish for?!
This is such a hard question! But naturally I've spent time thinking about it, and these are the three wishes I've come up with:
The ability to time travel—but only to the past. Not to change anything, just to look around and experience that era.
Perfect control over my memory, so I could remember what I want to remember, and forget what I want to forget.
That everyone in the world would experience true, perfect love.
What is your all time favorite middle-grade book and/or character?
Harriet the Spy
What do you love about writing middle-grade novels? Why do you think middle-grade literature is so popular and important?
When I was in the middle-grade age range, I was first starting to form my personal perspective on the world and my place in it. Reading was a hugely important factor in that. I think that's why writing for readers of that age feels natural and comfortable for me. Also, middle-grade readers are fun to write for because they're imaginative, they crave adventure, and often, they're just discovering the power of strong stories.
I think middle-grade literature can capture this special part of life when the world is becoming bigger and more complicated. New experiences and emotions are changing the simplicity of childhood. Often, you're experiencing feelings like disappointment, exhilaration, and indignation for the first time. Great middle-grade novels present those experiences in a way everyone can relate to, no matter how old you are.
Fill in the blanks:
I'm really awesome at the board game Boggle.
I'm really embarrassed to admit I don't think I could go a day without chocolate!
The last great book I read was Station Eleven by Emily St. John.
If you were to create and bake a cupcake inspired by Eden's Wish, what would it look and taste like, and what would you call it?
One of the lamp's masters, Goldie, is an incredible baker, and one of her specialties is carrot cake. Actually, Goldie's carrot cake has a special place in this book, and in Eden's Escape too. So I think it would have to be a hearty, moist, delicious carrot cake cupcake with fluffy cream cheese frosting. It would be called a Wish Come True cupcake.
M. Tara Crowl grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She studied Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, then received an MA in Creative Writing at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She lives in New York City. website * twitter * facebook
Win a signed copy of Eden's Wish!
-open to everyone
-ends 4/3
-there will be 3 winners
Please read all the Word Spelunking giveaway rules
Labels: 5th annual march mg madness, eden's escape, eden's wish, giveaway, interview, m tara crowl, march mg madness, review
Eden's Wish looks really cute and seems like a good lesson in "the grass isn't always greener." I look forward to reading it.
Love hooking my middle school daughter into a new series-thanks for the recommendation!
I don't think I'd like being a genie either. I like making my own choices.
What a great concept!
The 5th March MG Madness Comes To A Close
(5th MMGM) Summer of Lost and Found by Rebecca Beh...
(5th MMGM) Summerlost by Ally Condie (spotlight an...
(5th MMGM) The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin (rev...
(5th MMGM) Ms. Bixby's Last Day by John David Ande...
(5th MMGM) The Secrets of Solace Blog Tour (review...
(5th MMGM) Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin (spotlight an...
(5th MMGM) Fenway And Hattie by Victoria J. Coe (s...
(5th MMGM) Just Like Me by Nancy Cavanaugh (review...
(5th MMGM) Mabel Jones Series by Will Mabbitt (spo...
(5th MMGM) Alamo All-Stars by Nathan Hale (review ...
(5th MMGM) Eden's Wish by M. Tara Crowl (interview...
(5th MMGM) Waiting For Augusta by Jessica Lawson (...
(5th MMGM) Camp Rolling Hills by Stacy Davidowitz ...
(5th MMGM) The Lost Twin by Sophie Cleverly (revie...
(5th MMGM) A Day In The Park by Matt Weiss (spotli...
(5th MMGM) Poptropica: Mystery of the Map by Jack ...
(5th MMGM) Dara Palmer's Major Drama by Emma Sheva...
(5th MMGM) Ava XOX by Carol Weston (spotlight & gi...
(5th MMGM) A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human S...
(5th MMGM) Little Dee and the Penguin by Christoph...
(5th MMGM) A Tiny Piece of Sky by Shawn Stout (gue...
(5th MMGM) The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castl...
(5th MMGM) Gorilla Tactics by Sheila Grau (review ...
(5th MMGM) Guardian of the Gold Breathers by Elise...
(5th MMGM) Model Undercover Series by Carina Axels...
(5th MMGM) The Secrets to Ruling School (interview...
(5th MMGM) Runway Ready Series by Sheryl and Carri...
Bring History To Life Sweepstakes from Put Me In T...
(5th MMGM) Will Wilder by Raymond Arroyo (spotligh...
Sign-up for the Release Day Blitz for Summerlost b...
(5th MMGM) The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary (s...
(5th MMGM) Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by...
(5th MMGM) Dinosaur Boy Series by Cory Putman Oake...
(5th MMGM) Pilfer Academy by Lauren Magaziner (rev...
(5th MMGM) Charmed by Jen Calonita (spotlight, exc...
Calling All Cars Spotlight Tour (giveaway)
(5th MMGM) Amanda Lester, Detective Series by Paul...
(5th MMGM) The Terrible Two Get Worse by Mac Barne...
(5th MMGM) Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics by Ch...
(5th MMGM) Dead Boy by Laurel Gale (top ten list)
(5th MMGM) Wonder Woman at Super Hero High by Lisa...
(5th MMGM) Me and Miranda Mullaly by Jake Gerhardt...


Bathroom oval mirrors are a crucial element of any bathroom. There is a vast variety of bathroom mirrors available in the market today. The variance is in terms of their shapes and sizes.
Bathroom mirrors come in handy when styling your or shaving, or applying makeup.
Oval bathroom mirrors are created to add beauty and elegance to any bathroom. They can either come with or without frames. The frames may be wooden, metallic or plastic.
If there is no frame, the mirror will have slanted edges.
Oval bathroom mirrors may come with a shallow cabinet on the rear. This cabinet can be used for storing different toiletries. This kind of bathroom mirror may be surface mounted, or it may be fitted into a wall recess, in case there is one in the bathroom.
Another functional characteristic of the oval bathroom mirrors is that they are steam proof. For this reason, such mirrors are suitable for bathrooms that have a shower.


U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) spoke out against Trump Administration immigration policies Friday at Federal Plaza, 230 S. Dearborn St. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and three Illinois congressmen lambasted the Trump administration Friday for failing to reunify the more than 2,000 children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of its "zero tolerance" enforcement policy by Thursday's court-mandated deadline.
As of Thursday, the government had successfully reunified 1,442 children with their relatives.
But 711 children separated from their parents or other family members are still in government custody. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported at least 431 of those children's family members.
Seventeen children still waiting to be reunified with their parents are sheltered in detention centers in Illinois as of Thursday, according to ProPublica Illinois.
At a press conference outside the Kluczynski Federal Building, Duckworth questioned the Trump administration's resolve in reunifying all separated families.
Congressmen Bobby L. Rush, D-Ill.; Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.; and Brad Schneider, D-Ill., echoed Duckworth's concerns during a separate press conference at the Chicago Public Library's King Branch in Bronzeville.
"We took these children from their parents, and we have a moral and legal obligation to find their parents wherever there are," Krishnamoorthi said.
The four members of Congress also questioned what they called a lack of transparency between Heartland Alliance, the agency contracted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to house and care for migrant children, and the public about its operations.
"I live a block away from [one of their facilities] and didn't know about it until recently," Rush said.
Heartland Alliance runs nine detention shelters in the Chicago area for unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the border.
In June, the Sun-Times first reported Heartland Alliance was housing dozens of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Heartland Alliance has since come under scrutiny for allegations of abuse and maltreatment at its facilities, in particular at its Des Plaines center known as Casa Guadalupe.
Duckworth said the Department of Health and Human Services denied her request to visit asa Guadalupe on Friday, adding that the agency appears to be "stonewalling" oversight efforts.
"What are they hiding?," she asked.
"Nevertheless, HHS is still working with Senator Duckworth's office to schedule a tour in the near future," the agency added.
On Wednesday, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance that requires Heartland Alliance and other child welfare agencies to register with the city and be subject to regular inspections.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Heartland Alliance said it has no objection to additional oversight.
CORRECTION: An article that ran in Friday's edition misattributed the reason why Senator Tammy Duckworth was unable to visit Heartland Alliance's shelter, Casa Guadalupe. Heartland Alliance did not cancel her request to visit the shelter; it does not have the authority to approve or deny visits at its facilities. The Sun-Times regrets this error.


Advergaming that targets children is specifically designed to blur the boundary between advertising and entertainment.
A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, "It's Child Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children," is a comprehensive look at this new type of advertising. Haven't heard of it? You will. According to the report, Price Waterhouse Coopers estimates a five-fold increase in spending on this type of advertising by 2009. Advergaming (a contraction of advertising and gaming) is the use of online video games with embedded brand messages to engage your target audience. It is specifically designed to blur the boundary between advertising and entertainment. This report looks at advergaming that targets kids.
Advergaming is a good deal for food marketers. It is cheap compared to TV advertising ($2 per thousand users compared with $7 to $30 per thousand viewers). Also, it can be tracked in a way TV ads cannot (number of visitors, time spent on the site, repeat visits and so forth). Sites with games hold the viewers' attention much longer than 30 second or 60 second TV spots. Popsicle's site, www.popsicle.com, for example, has structured games that encourage you to play again and again so that you can improve your skills and improve your score.
Yes, your child could check raisins, or carrots, or grapes. But when compared to Batman Pasta or Dora the Explorer Pasta in colorful cans with cartoon characters on them, what do you think your kid will pick?
Eighty-five percent (85%) of the brands originally identified were found to have a website that either directly targets children or contains content that would be of interest to them.
Sites were quite varied. Some were simple with few activities or games, others were more complex and included membership opportunities as well as movie and television tie-ins.
Some sites focused on children as the target, others had features that could interest a more general audience as well.
Most (73%) focused on only one food brand.
The researchers used Nielsen/Net rating data for the second quarter of 2005 to determine audience size. There were an astounding 12.2 million visits by children ages 2-11 across the set of study websites during those three months. That would be close to 50 million visits annually. Clearly, these sites are attracting kids. Even though some sites asked for birthdays and parental permission if the date indicated the visitor is less than 13, there is still exposure to a significant amount of content that does not require parental consent.
This study was not designed to determine if these sites are effective at driving more sales. But I am sure industry believes, and probably has evidence, that they will. At a time when parents and health professionals are struggling to develop effective ways to address the epidemic of childhood obesity, it seems counterproductive, for society as a whole, to have increased consumption of high-calorie snack foods and beverages being driven by advergaming.
That's my opinion. Take a look at some of these sites and tell me what you think?


At MyWalkGear.com, we offer a variety of personalized Breast Cancer Awareness gifts, merchandise and walk gear for our customers. The following items are our best sellers. All of these would be great to wear and carry at your next breast cancer walk, and all are offered at an incredibly affordable price.
From Breast Cancer shirts and sweatshirts to Breast Cancer mugs and car magnets, we have the merchandise that will help you spread the word about a cause that's near and dear to your heart. These make great gifts for fundraisers, benefits, and awareness walks in your area.


• Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of any future purchases. I value your feedback as it helps me plan which products are most valuable for your classroom.
• Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. You will now receive email updates about my store. Thank you and enjoy using the product!


This was the case recently in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the father of a young boy who drowned in a backyard pool at a family gathering.
According to court records, the 5-year-old child had come to the party with his mother, and neither he nor his mother knew how to swim, though she did not bring a flotation device with her. When the child and his mother first arrived, one of the homeowners agreed to watch the child as he splashed around in the wading area of the pool, which was separated from the main pool by a nine-inch rock wall. When the child's grandfather – a city fire department captain – arrived at the gathering, he told the homeowner he would take over watching the child. He later testified he never turned that responsibility over to anyone else.
When the boy's mother saw the homeowner whom she had entrusted to watch the child in the house, she did not ask who was watching her son because she assumed another adult had taken over. The boy's grandfather allowed him to play in the shallow end of the pool. At some point, the grandfather lost sight of the boy. An older girl reportedly held the boy and played in the deep end – with the approval of his grandfather – but it's not clear at what point she and his grandfather lost sight of them. Suddenly, someone spotted the boy being in face down at the bottom of the pool. Adults pulled him out, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and the boy died.
In plaintiff's lawsuit, it was alleged defendant homeowners made modifications to the pool that turned the color of the water dark, thus making it difficult to see under the surface. Further, plaintiff alleged no flotation devices were provided to guests.
Trial court granted summary judgment to defendant, finding homeowners owed no duty of care because decedent's grandfather had specifically overtaken supervisory duties for the child, and there was no evidence that any condition of the pool was dangerous or that these conditions caused the boy's death.


What does it mean to be educated? With facts available after a quick online search, how can we ensure that we are educating for the future? Traditional curriculum focused on facts, topics and skills no longer prepares students for a world where critical and problem-solving thinkers are needed. I'll share how a curriculum that is concept-based offers learning that requires depth of understanding instead of content coverage. An alternative to the traditional curriculum models.
Angeline has been a primary school educator since 1999. Her career as an educator started in a state school in Sydney, Australia, before working in Nanjing International School, China. Currently Angeline is the Accreditation Co-coordinator at Berlin International School, Germany. Angeline has taught every grade ranging from 5-12 year olds as a classroom teacher and music specialist.
At Berlin International School, she was the primary school curriculum coordinator for many years. Since April 2007 she has been an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme workshop leader and school visitor. Angeline is also a certified Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction Presenter and Trainer. Developing curriculum and teacher training is her passion and when she is not busy being a curriculum-nerd, she enjoys cooking, and spending time with her sons and husband.


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