Two thirds of adults, equivalent to 32 million people, said they had received an unwanted telephone call, text, email or letter.
 
Of these, 98% did not feel that they had given their permission to be contacted and more than half (55%) estimated they were contacted over ten times in the last 12 months.
 
The charity found people’s work, family time and even household chores are being put on hold to answer calls about re-claiming for PPI. One in four of those surveyed received their most recent call during a during a family meal time; 1 in 7 received the call while at work; 1 in 8 were contacted while watching a TV or film; and 1 in 25 were carrying out domestic duties, like cleaning, cooking and gardening.
 
The survey of 5,682 UK adults found that telephone calls (91%), automated messages to landlines (39%) and texts to mobiles (35%) are the most common ways in which people are contacted about PPI claims.
 
Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said:
 
“It’s completely unacceptable that precious family time, important work meetings and rare opportunities to relax are being ruined by PPI cold calls.  Nuisance calls aren’t just irritating, they’re often a sign that the service on offer isn’t very good or is actually a scam.  Over a third of the complaints Citizens Advice handles about financial services stem from a cold call.
 
“There is a particular problem with claims management companies.  People are finding that sometimes the promises made over an unexpected phone call aren’t delivered.  This means people who have been mis-sold PPI lose out twice: first at the hands of the bank and secondly from the claims firms because they don’t get the full compensation they deserve.
 
“I want financial services firms to be banned from cold calling.  That will help consumers identify good firms from the bad.  Then if you get a cold call you’ll know it is either a bogus firm or company not to be trusted.”
 
Citizens Advice found 56% of complaints about PPI claims management stemmed from cold calls.

Richard Lloyd, exécutive director at consumer group Which? said: “The Government must give regulators more powers to crack down on unscrupulous claims firms who are contacting consumers without permission and exploiting people who can claim compensation for free themselves.”

Last month, Which? launched an online tool to help households report nuisance PPI calls and texts.