Dissatisfaction with general insurance and income protection policies underlies a 21% increase in complaints to Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the second half of 2011.

The FSA says complaints about insurance rose by 49% to 1.2 million and complaints about pure protection insurance, comprising critical illness, income protection and non-investment life insurance, leaped 85% to 977,000.

Redress of £2.1 billion ($1.8 billion) was paid by insurers – a substantial increase on the first half because complaints had been put on hold during a judicial review earlier in the year.

Complaints about banks have been decreasing since 2010 while insurance complaints have been rising and insurers have now overtaken the banks.

Complaints about “advising, selling and arranging” increased by 69% to over a million and 92% of them were about general insurance and pure protection insurance.

The percentage of upheld complaints rose from 51% in the first half to 60% in the second half, again related to insurance. 

Banks’ insurance arms attracted the most complaints.