How Citizen-Led Intelligence Is Reshaping Complaint Resolution in UK Financial Services
By Steve Conley
Founder, Get SAFE – Support After Financial Exploitation
Academy of Life Planning
1. When Justice Is Paywalled, The Vulnerable Disappear
In 2013, the UK Government introduced fees for bringing Employment Tribunal claims.
The result was devastating:
- Total claims fell 70%.
- Claims from the most vulnerable—pregnant women, low-paid workers, discrimination victims—collapsed.
- Thousands of people with genuine grievances simply gave up, because justice had become unaffordable.
In 2017, the Supreme Court struck the fees down as unconstitutional.
Why? Because a rights system that nobody can afford to use is no rights system at all.
This is not ancient history.
It is the direct blueprint for what is happening right now in the financial-services complaints system.
2. The New Barrier: ÂŁ250 to Escalate a Complaint
Most people still don’t realise it:
If your complaint to a financial firm involves legal assistance, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) can now charge ÂŁ250.
This fee doesn’t fall on the firm.
It falls on you — the already harmed consumer.
For small-value disputes, vulnerable clients, or people facing financial harm, this echoes the worst effects of the Employment Tribunal era:
- Low-value claims vanish.
- Complex cases are not brought.
- Power tilts further toward the institution.
- The system becomes “access in theory, exclusion in practice.”
When the price of justice is higher than the benefit of justice, justice dies quietly.
3. The Two Old Options Were Already Broken
Historically, a harmed consumer had two choices:
Option 1: Go Direct to the Firm
The firm that harmed you investigates itself.
It “marks its own homework.”
Most people give up at this stage — overwhelmed, isolated, and exhausted.
Option 2: Use a Claims Management Company (CMC)
Slick adverts promise:
“We’ll get you thousands back!”
But the model is extractive:
- No-win-no-fee (but up to 40% of your compensation)
- Data-harvesting
- Standardised templates
- High-volume, low-detail claims
- Zero empowerment
You might win something — but you remain dependent, not empowered.
And now, add the new barrier:
Option 3 (old model): Legal assistance → £250 FOS fee
Once again, those with the least resources face the highest hurdles.
4. The New Route: AI-Empowered Citizen Investigators
Welcome to the third door. The Goliathon Door.
A route that:
- keeps 100% of compensation in your hands
- avoids the ÂŁ250 FOS fee (because you are not legally represented)
- creates professional-grade dossiers
- transforms victims into credible claimants
- empowers escalation all the way to:
- the firm
- the FOS
- the courts
- Parliament
- the media
- the public domain
A route built not on dependency — but on sovereignty.
This is where Get SAFE and The Goliathon come in.
5. The Goliathon Model — Justice Without Permission
For a one-time cost (for training) plus a ÂŁ29 lifetime fellowship, a survivor gains:
1. Professional guidance, without legal representation
You stay within the rules — no legal assistance = no £250 fee.
2. Tools to test whether a complaint is weak or vexatious
Nobody wants to clog the system with poor claims.
The Goliathon training helps you identify:
- legitimacy
- evidence gaps
- required documents
- regulatory breaches
- strength of causation
3. Step-by-step complaint construction
You learn to craft:
- a structured narrative
- a chronology
- evidence bundles
- regulatory cross-references
- outcome requests
- redress calculations
4. Support to escalate to the FOS
You present your own case — clearly, calmly, factually.
5. Support to escalate beyond the FOS
For cases involving systemic wrongdoing, negligence, concealment, or regulatory failure.
6. Preparation for court
You’re able to:
- approach top litigation firms with a ready-made dossier, increasing your chances of contingent-fee representation
- prepare your own filings as a litigant-in-person with evidence checked for accuracy
- position your case for Parliamentary, media, or public interest escalation
7. A supportive community
You are no longer alone.
You join others rebuilding their lives and pushing for structural reform.
This is access to justice without gatekeepers.
6. A Case Study: Ongoing Advice Fees
For years, St. James’s Place charged millions in ongoing advice fees where:
- annual reviews didn’t happen
- clients didn’t receive adequate service
- fees were not clearly explained
- value was not demonstrated
CMCs are now flooding social media with adverts:
“We’ll get you thousands back!”
And SJP tells clients:
“You can just come direct and keep 100%.”
But there is now a third option:
The AI-assisted citizen investigator
The Goliathon route allows clients to:
- gather statements
- compare promises vs service
- analyse annual review records
- cross-check charges
- measure detriment
- draft a precise complaint
- stand as an informed, empowered complainant
This model is beginning to erode the asymmetry that made ongoing-fee models so profitable for so long.
And the incumbents know it.
7. “They’ll Laugh at You” — Until They Can’t
Every major disruption begins with the same reflex:
Mockery.
The people laughing today are the people who laughed at:
- index funds
- online banking
- robo-advice
- fractional trading
- open banking
- fee transparency
Every one of those “jokes” became the mainstream.
Why?
Because they gave power back to the public.
AI is now doing the same for access to justice.
It has already commoditised the most profitable part of the advice industry — information control.
Consumers are learning faster than advisers believe.
Regulation is shifting from “products sold” to “outcomes proven.”
And the 99% of human wealth that advisers ignored — values, purpose, resilience, income, capability, social capital — is becoming the new frontier.
Laughing at that is not insight.
It is denial.
8. What This Means for the Industry
A structurally untrustworthy system:
- charges consumers to defend themselves
- suppresses valid complaints
- controls the information
- punishes the vulnerable
- depends on consumer ignorance
A structurally trustworthy system:
- empowers the public
- increases transparency
- improves outcomes
- aligns incentives
- decentralises power
- welcomes scrutiny
AI makes the second model possible.
Citizen investigators make it inevitable.
9. The Future: A Public-Led Justice Ecosystem
This is what Get SAFE is building:
- A Fellowship
- A Citizen Investigator Playbook
- A Witnessing Service
- A Goliathon Training Series
- A National Network of Empowered Survivors
- A new, structurally trustworthy route to redress
We are not replacing lawyers, FOS adjudicators, MPs, regulators, or journalists.
We are creating better-prepared claimants.
People who:
- know their rights
- know their evidence
- know their story
- know how to escalate
- know when to push
- know when to settle
This is public-led justice, powered by open, independent AI.
10. Final Word
The financial system will not reform because the industry volunteers it.
It will reform because the public finally has the tools, the confidence, and the intelligence to demand better.
The Employment Tribunal experience taught us what happens when justice is priced out of reach.
AI gives us the power to ensure it never happens again.
This is the moment the balance of power changes.
Not tomorrow.
Now.
What is Goliathon?
The Citizen Investigator’s Path from Overwhelm to Justice
Goliathon is a justice-building system designed for people who have been financially harmed and left to fend for themselves. It exists because most victims can’t afford £20,000–£40,000 in legal fees, can’t get regulators to listen, and have no idea where to start.
Goliathon changes that.
It gives survivors clarity, structure, and skill — so they can finally understand what happened to them and build cases that institutions must take seriously.
The Problem: Victims Face Goliaths Alone
Banks, regulators, trustees, debt collectors, and law firms hold:
- the data
- the systems
- the resources
- the internal codes
- the legal knowledge
- the power
Victims have none of that — just a stack of confusing DSAR pages and years of trauma.
The system was never designed for ordinary people to navigate.
Goliathon levels the field.
The Solution: Transform Victims into Citizen Investigators
Goliathon doesn’t teach people to “play lawyer.”
It teaches them to:
 read their DSAR
 rebuild their timeline
 identify breaches and contradictions
 index evidence like a solicitor
 write professional, assertive letters
 organise a case dossier that regulators cannot ignore
 prepare for legal or political escalation
This is not adversarial.
It is empowerment through clarity.
When someone understands their evidence, they stand taller.
They communicate better.
They become taken seriously.
That changes everything.
The Method: A Step-by-Step Case-Building Process
Goliathon breaks the overwhelming chaos into clean, manageable stages:
Stage 1 — Stabilise
Support, grounding, emotional safety, clarity of situation.
Stage 2 — Organise
Evidence folders, naming systems, indexing, understanding the paperwork.
Stage 3 — Analyse
Timeline reconstruction, breach mapping, identifying missing documents.
Stage 4 — Articulate
Writing clear, fact-based correspondence that gets responses.
Stage 5 — Escalate
How to approach MPs, regulators, Ombudsman, journalists, or solicitors.
Stage 6 — Advance
Build a full digital dossier: every document, every finding, every conclusion.
Every survivor gets a structured, professional brief that any regulator or lawyer could pick up and run with.
That is the heart of structural trustworthiness.
The Role of AI: A Co-Pilot for Justice
Independent AI — not industry-captured AI — gives survivors the ability to:
- decode bank jargon
- spot inconsistencies
- extract timelines
- rewrite letters professionally
- summarise 1,000-page DSARs
- check logic, tone, and clarity
- produce solicitor-grade structure
AI doesn’t replace legal judgement.
It gives ordinary people the clarity required to engage with legal systems in the first place.
Goliathon combines the human and the technological — conscience-led empowerment supported by structurally trustworthy tools.
The Outcome: Victims Go from Helpless to Seen, Heard, and Taken Seriously
Once a survivor completes the Goliathon process, they walk away with:
A forensic case file
Organised, indexed, and professionally structured.
A clear narrative
What happened, when, why, and what evidence supports it.
A strategy
Which organisation to approach, in what order, and with what documents.
A voice
Calm, precise, firm — and respected.
A pathway to restitution
Whether regulatory, legal, political, or media-led.
We see banks reverse positions.
We see stalled cases move forward.
We see survivors regain their sense of power.
Because clarity is leverage.
And Goliathon gives clarity.
Why We Called It Goliathon
Because survivors often feel like they are standing in front of a towering giant — powerful, unaccountable, impossible to fight.
But when you understand your case…
when your evidence is organised…
when your words are precise…
when your dossier is watertight…
The giant stops looking invincible.
And you realise:
Goliath wasn’t defeated by force.
He was defeated by precision.
That is the spirit of Goliathon.
In One Sentence
Goliathon turns victims of financial exploitation into confident, capable citizen investigators who can build professional-grade cases using structured training, emotional support, and independent AI.
Instant Access
Purchase today for ÂŁ2.99 and get your secure link to:
- the training video, and
- the downloadable workbook.
Link to Goliathon Taster ÂŁ2.99.
If the session resonates, you can upgrade to the full Goliathon Programme for ÂŁ29 and continue your journey toward clarity, justice, and recovery.
Every year, thousands across the UK lose their savings, pensions, and peace of mind to corporate financial exploitation — and are left to face the aftermath alone.
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) exists to change that.
We’re creating a national lifeline for victims — offering free emotional recovery, life-planning, and justice support through our Fellowship, Witnessing Service, and Citizen Investigator training.
We’re now raising £20,000 to:
Register Get SAFE as a Charity (CIO)
Build our website, CRM, and outreach platform
Fund our first year of free support and recovery programmes
Every £50 donation provides a bursary for one survivor — giving access to the tools, training, and community needed to rebuild life and pursue justice with confidence.
Your contribution doesn’t just fund a project — it fuels a movement.
Support the Crowdfunder today and help us rebuild lives and restore justice.
Join us at: http://www.aolp.info/getsafe
steve.conley@aolp.co.uk | +44 (0)7850 102070
⚖️ What happened when Employment Tribunal fees were introduced (2013)
In July 2013, the UK government introduced fees for bringing Employment Tribunal (ET) and Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) claims.
Typical costs:
- £160–£250 to issue a claim
- £230–£950 for a hearing
- Up to ÂŁ1,200 in total for an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim
Although fee remissions existed, they were complex and poorly understood.
The policy intention was presented as:
- reducing “weak or vexatious” claims,
- encouraging earlier settlement,
- reducing burden on employers.
But the effect on ordinary people – especially vulnerable claimants – was catastrophic.
📉 The impact: legitimate claims collapsed
The effect was immediate and severe.
1. 70% fall in total ET claims
The official statistics showed a dramatic drop in case volumes – a collapse far too large to be explained by fewer “weak” claims.
2. Claims by the most vulnerable fell the most
- Sex discrimination: down 79%
- Pregnancy/maternity discrimination: heavily reduced
- Unlawful deductions from wages: significantly reduced
- Equal pay claims: down more than 80% in some periods
These categories tend to be brought by women, low-paid workers, or unrepresented claimants.
Fees priced them out entirely.
3. Small and low-value claims were effectively shut down
People owed just £300–£500 in wages were being asked to pay £390 or more to seek redress.
Rationally, they simply didn’t claim.
4. Power imbalances widened
Employers knew workers could no longer easily challenge unlawful behaviour, reducing accountability.
The system moved from a tribunal of access to one of exclusion.
5. Fees did not deter “weak” claims
There was no evidence that the claims being deterred were unmeritorious.
It simply became too expensive to enforce rights.
🏛️ The Supreme Court steps in (2017)
In R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51, the Supreme Court ruled the fees unlawful.
Key findings:
1. Fees prevented access to justice
The right to a tribunal is a constitutional right.
Fees that make exercising that right illusory are unlawful.
2. The sharp fall in claims proved the suppression of legitimate grievances
The evidence showed meritorious cases were not being brought because people could not afford to enforce their rights.
3. Fees disproportionately impacted women
The Supreme Court highlighted discrimination concerns because women (especially in discrimination and maternity claims) were significantly more affected.
4. The government had no evidence that fees achieved their intended aims
The policy justification collapsed under scrutiny.
Outcome
- Fees were abolished immediately.
- All fees paid had to be refunded by the government (approx. ÂŁ27m).
This case is now a landmark in constitutional rights, access to justice, and the protection of vulnerable claimants.
🔥 Why this matters directly to our work
Because you are confronting exactly the same structural dynamics in:
- financial harm cases
- FOS access issues
- the ÂŁ250 fee for legally assisted complaints
- banks’ attempts to control AI
- the need for independent, citizen-led tools
- the suppression of justice through financial barriers.
The Employment Tribunal saga shows that:
When you introduce fees for the vulnerable to enforce rights, claims collapse – not because the rights vanish, but because access to justice becomes unaffordable.
And the courts have already ruled that such arrangements can be unlawful if they impede justice disproportionately.
You can use this precedent to frame:
- why FOS fees for legal assistance harm consumers
- why regulators must design systems based on structural trustworthiness, not exclusion
- why Get SAFE’s free, empowered, dossier-driven model is the modern remedy
- why attempts to restrict access to AI are attempts to reintroduce a “fees barrier” by another route
- why the justice system must not be designed around protecting institutions from claims.
Academy of Life Planning 