It's been a record-breaking year for financial complaints, with a near 50 percent increase in the number lodged with the Financial Ombudsman.These mainly included complaints about KiwiSaver providers when seeking hardship withdrawals, as well as being declined, along with electronic transaction services when people tried to recover funds through account number mistakes or scams.Financial Ombudsman Susan Taylor told Nine to Noon there were 1596 complaints in the 2025/26 financial year, with 532 disputes investigated by the office - a 49 percent increase on the previous year.Taylor said it was the sharpest increase in complaints in 15 years.The surge was driven by ongoing economic stress, debt challenges and the use of AI to submit complaints, she said."For some New Zealanders, economic conditions remain very challenging."She said using AI to submit complaints had it advantages and disadvantages."It makes our service more accessible to people who may have felt reluctant, but the disadvantages are in that sometimes the complaints can be very lengthy. Sometimes it gives them the wrong information."Most of the complaints regarding KiwiSaver had to do with people feeling as though a KiwiSaver supervisor should have accepted their application for hardship withdrawal or they weren't able to get out the amount of money they wanted.Susan Taylor, the Financial Ombudsman and CEO at Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL). (File photo)FSCLShe said there were also quite a few complaints about service this year, including delays with a large amount of people wanting to withdraw KiwiSaver."When people apply for hardship withdrawals they are usually in a very vulnerable situation and any delays in the process only makes it harder for them," Taylor said."We've seen some concerns around timeliness, where we've felt the person is having to wait too long for it to get in front of a supervisor."The other main sort of complaint Taylor had been seeing related to money transfer services for people who were sending money overseas."We've had a few service complaints where a person feels the process has been far too slow and it has taken too long to get overseas and caused issues. Also seen where people are the victims of scams and fraud."In the case of scams, Taylor said often when someone found out they had been scammed the money was already long gone and they were seeking help to try and get that money back and felt their provider should've done more to help them."Unfortunately once it's gone from that overseas account, it's too late," Taylor said.