A last minute surge of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims crashed websites and phone services at UK banks last night, as customers rushed to make the midnight deadline.

A number of High Street banks apologised for IT glitches and extended phone waiting times as their systems struggled to cope with customers looking to make claims.

The surge was driven by a recent advertising campaign run by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alerting potential victims to seek compensation if they had fallen victim to PPI, which saw lenders mis-sell insurance cover.

A total of £36 billion has been paid out in compensation since the scandal was first uncovered in January 2011.

Following last night’s IT outages, the FCA advised that they would expect firms to take a “pragmatic” approach to dealing with claims submitted immediately after the deadline, to take into account the fact that customers may have had trouble accessing their services online or through phone lines.

Santander has now extended its deadline for PPI claims to accommodate customers who may have missed out on the deadline, after the bank’s online PPI form was unavailable on Thursday morning, with many customers waiting hours on phone lines.

In a message posted to a disgruntled customer on its Twitter help feed yesterday, Santander said: “We’re aware that customers have been experiencing difficulties accessing our online PPI claim form. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, if you could try again, the form is now available.”

The technical issue appeared to relate to the devices being used to fill in the form.

Meanwhile, NatWest customers attempting to access the PPI form found they were blocked from applying due to “system problems”. A post on the bank’s social media account explained the lender was experiencing “intermittent issues with the website” and “higher than normal complaint [sic]”.

Barclays customers reported receiving error messages when trying to fill out forms, with Barclays social media help team explaining that "due to unprecedented volumes you may not receive acknowledgement of your complaint for up to four weeks."

Customers at the Co-operative Bank also had issues filling in an online PPI form due to a technical issue yesterday afternoon.

Commenting on the IT glitches, Martin Lewis, founder of consumer advice website MoneySavingExpert, who has been leading the campaign for PPI compensation, said: “It is simply not fair or right that people who have tried to submit a claim before the deadline and have been disenfranchised by bust bank tech miss out.”

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