Your car finance payout just slipped, your energy supplier is changing hands, and please check your doorstops

Three stories ran the week: the FCA confirmed the motor finance redress scheme has slipped from July to roughly November 2026 because of four parallel legal challenges; E.ON announced it is acquiring OVO Energy, creating a combined supplier for around 9 million UK households; and Dunelm recalled 27 designs of novelty doorstop after the sand inside them was found to contain asbestos. Plus a handful of smaller items worth flagging at the bottom. The short version of each, and what to do about it.

Motor finance redress scheme delayed to November

What happened: The FCA's motor finance consumer redress scheme (PS26/3), which was due to start paying out from July, has been pushed back to approximately November 2026.

Why: Four separate legal challenges have been filed at the Upper Tribunal:

1. CA Auto Finance (Crédit Agricole group)
2. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services
3. Volkswagen Financial Services
4. Consumer Voice (via Courmacs Legal), a consumer body arguing that the scheme's "hybrid" calculation method shortchanges most claimants

The three lender challenges argue the methodology is too generous; the Consumer Voice challenge argues it under-pays. Court hearings are unlikely before October 2026, with a mid-November contingency decision date. The FCA confirmed the delay in a statement on 8th May 2026, and Martin Lewis at MoneySavingExpert covered it on 11th May.

What it means for you: The £7.5 billion scheme covering 12.1 million agreements is still happening, it is just running on a slower timetable. The average payout remains approximately £829 per agreement under the current calculation method, but that figure is one of the things subject to change depending on the Tribunal's findings. The 30th June 2026 date you may have seen quoted in earlier coverage was the lender's operational deadline for starting to contact customers; it was never a date by which money lands in your bank account.

What you should do: Complain now, do not wait. Both Martin Lewis (MoneySavingExpert, 11th May) and the FCA itself recommend filing a complaint as soon as possible. A complaint logged before the scheme starts puts you in the priority "existing complainant" queue rather than the slower second queue. You do not need a claims management company: the scheme is free to use, the complaint goes directly to your lender, and the FCA has banned 899 misleading CMC adverts since January 2024.

Check your eligibility on EvenStance takes about two minutes and costs nothing. If you are eligible, start a free case and we will draft the complaint, track the 8-week response deadline, and prepare a FOS escalation automatically if the lender stalls.

E.ON to acquire OVO Energy

What happened: E.ON has agreed to acquire OVO Energy, creating a combined supplier serving approximately 9 million UK households. The deal was announced on 11th May 2026 and is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to CMA approval.

What it means for you:

• Nothing changes immediately. Both companies will continue to operate under separate licences until the CMA either approves the deal or imposes conditions.
• Your tariff stays the same for now. No automatic price changes follow from the acquisition itself.
• Watch for communications. If the CMA approves the deal, you should be notified individually about any changes to your account, terms, or tariff. Be cautious of phishing emails impersonating either supplier during the transition; verify any unexpected message by logging in directly rather than clicking email links.
• Your rights are unchanged. Under Ofgem rules, your energy supplier must give you at least 30 days' notice of any price increase, and you can switch at any time without penalty (subject to your tariff's exit terms). The recent Energy Ombudsman reforms also apply: from when the implementation SI is laid, you will be able to escalate a complaint after four weeks rather than eight.

If you are an OVO or E.ON customer, no action is needed at this stage. We will update this section when the CMA makes its decision.

Dunelm doorstop recall, asbestos in the sand

What happened: Dunelm has recalled 27 designs of novelty doorstop after sand inside the products was found to contain asbestos, a banned substance under UK law because it carries a serious health risk at any level of exposure. The recall was reported by Which? on 10th May 2026.

Affected products: 27 different designs of novelty and character doorstops sold by Dunelm in stores and online. If you have any novelty doorstop bought from Dunelm, treat it as in scope until you have confirmed otherwise against the recall notice.

What you should do:

1. Stop using the doorstop and move it out of reach of children and pets. Do not open, cut, shake, or disturb it. Asbestos exposure risk comes from disturbing the fibres, not from the unopened product sitting still.
2. Return it to Dunelm for a full refund. No receipt required. Follow the retailer's safe-disposal instructions if you cannot get to a store.
3. Your legal rights: under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods must be of satisfactory quality. A product containing asbestos plainly is not. A refund is the floor here; if anyone in your household was directly exposed to the sand (for example, by handling a doorstop that had split), keep the packaging, the receipt and any photos, and ask your GP to put it on file. The legal picture in cases of actual exposure goes beyond a refund and may include a personal-injury claim against the manufacturer or retailer.

In brief

• FCA restricts Kingscrown Finance Limited. The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a Final Notice restricting Kingscrown Finance Limited, a firm that was never authorised but had been operating as a property lender. The FCA's notice is online and lists known trading names. If you have dealt with the firm, lodge a complaint with the FCA directly and report any payment by card to your bank as a possible chargeback candidate.
• Inheritance-tax pension scams. Which? issued a warning this week about scammers targeting people worried about the inheritance-tax changes due to take effect on pensions in 2027. The pattern is unsolicited contact offering to "protect" or "restructure" your pension to avoid the new tax. Any cold approach offering pension restructuring is almost always a scam: hang up, do not click links, and report it to the FCA and Action Fraud.
• Middle East travel disruption. MoneySavingExpert is tracking jet-fuel surcharges, route diversions and booking disruption on Middle East routes following the latest FCDO advisory updates. Most standard travel-insurance policies exclude war and armed-conflict claims, so check your policy wording before flying or before assuming you can recover the cost of a cancellation; the airline-cancellation rules and Section 75 may be stronger routes than the insurance.
• Pension Schemes Act 2026. The Pension Schemes Act 2026 received Royal Assent this week. It introduces the long-trailed Value for Money framework, mandatory consolidation duties for underperforming defined-contribution schemes, and changes to the small-pots regime. We will publish a detailed explainer once the commencement orders are clear; for now, no immediate consumer action is required, but watch for letters from your provider over the next 12 months.
• PRA: AI is "quite significant disruption" to financial services. The Prudential Regulation Authority's chief executive flagged that AI is causing "quite significant disruption" to the way banks and insurers operate. Relevant to consumers because it shapes the supervisory expectations on how firms handle AI-assisted decisions: think loan approvals, fraud detection, and increasingly the triage of complaints. Worth watching, because the Consumer Duty applies to the outcome regardless of whether a human or a model made the call.
• Build-A-Bear recall. The Heartwarming Hugs Bear 2 has been recalled because a small detachable accessory poses a choking hazard. If you bought one, return it to the store for a refund. As ever, the retailer cannot push you back to the manufacturer; your contract is with the shop.

FOS update

The Financial Ombudsman Service decisions-search service has been returning HTTP 403 for seven consecutive days; the FOS site's anti-bot protection appears to be blocking automated access. We are monitoring and will resume decision tracking the moment access is restored. If you need an individual FOS decision in the meantime, the FOS will respond to a request submitted directly via their website's contact form, normally within 5 working days.

This roundup is compiled by EvenStance Intelligence from FCA publications, MoneySavingExpert, Which?, and verified news sources. All information is fact-checked against primary sources where available. Have a dispute? Start your free case assessment.