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Co-op Bank forced to pay out almost £2,000 over ageism complaint

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  • 02/02/2016
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Co-op Bank forced to pay out almost £2,000 over ageism complaint
The Co-operative Bank has been forced to pay out almost £2,000 to a 59-year-old customer after refusing to offer a five-year extension on his mortgage on the grounds that he was ‘too old’.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Peter Day was compensated £500 by the bank plus £1,389 to cover the cost of changing his lender, after he was declined an extra five years on his mortgage in 2014 when he was three years from paying off the entire mortgage.

The landmark ruling is believed to be the first relating to ageism upheld by the Financial Ombudsman. The Ombudsman said: “The Co-op hasn’t shown me that it did act fairly or within the terms of the Equality Act . . . My overall conclusion [is] that the Co-op didn’t treat Mr Day fairly.”

Day, who previously worked as head of banking and savings operations for Nationwide Building Society, wanted to delay repaying his mortgage to put money aside for his daughter in case she decided to get married in the future.

He told the Daily Mail: “The bank had every opportunity to assess my affordability. They had not taken into account that I was a good existing customer.

“The Co-op has a responsibility to treat customers fairly. I find it appalling that organisations set their stall out to treat customers fairly and do not carry through in terms of their policy,” Day added.

“It was clearly age discrimination as paying the money back and my current financial position were clearly no problem.”

Since the ruling the Co-op Bank has changed its policy and extended the maximum age limit for mortgage repayment from 68 to 75.

A spokesperson for the bank said: “We apologise to Mr Day that we were unable to resolve his original complaint to his satisfaction.”

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