Fighting for Fairness will be broadcast on Tuesday, 13 April, 2004, at 2002 BST.
The programme will be repeated on Sunday, 18 April, 2004, at 1702 BST.
It is the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service to provide a free, efficient and fair service to people who are unable to resolve complaints themselves, or feel they are not being awarded appropriate compensation.
The UK has what is regarded as the world's most powerful and all-embracing Financial Ombudsman Service.
It is vital for everyone who uses the service to have full trust in its ability to fight for fairness and to settle disputes correctly.
But there are currently huge stresses on the system.
The programme explores whether a vastly increased workload - caused mainly by complaints over failing endowments - is having a major effect on the Financial Ombudsman Service when it comes to how it judges what is fair and what is not.
Chris A'Court meets members of the public who claim they have been let down by the way their disputes have been handled and investigates how and why they might have been treated unfairly.
He interviews Chief Financial Ombudsman Walter Merricks and top executives in the financial sector who argue that it is not consumers but the industry which now deserves a greater say in how disputes are resolved.
