The head of the hydra causing most grief at present is payment protection insurance (PPI). These are policies typically sold with loans — mortgages, credit cards or store cards — designed to protect against illness or unemployment. They are designed by insurers, sold by bankers. You could guess just from this unholy alliance that they would be rotten — and you would be right.

In January the Competition Commission decided after a lengthy investigation that PPI was a joke. There is a reason why that nice man at the bank was so keen for you to take out a PPI policy with your personal loan — typically the commission paid is up to 80 per cent of your initial premiums. And it doesn’t work. The report found that typical claims ratios — the percentage of money taken in that is paid out to claimants — were a mindbogglingly low 14 per cent. Compare this to typical claims ratios on motor insurance of 78 per cent, and on property of 54 per cent. So insurers pay out £14 for every £100 taken in premiums. The rest is commission and profit. It’s a mark-up to make a maitre d’ blush for shame.

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