Ofcom, unemployment, pay and national insurance

Britain’s biggest mobile network has been fined £2.7 million for overcharging tens of thousands of customers.

The telecoms regulator Ofcom found that EE, which is owned by telecoms giant BT, broke a billing rule on two occasions. According to the BBC, ‘users who called its 150 customer services number while roaming within the EU were incorrectly charged as if they had called the US. That meant customers were charged £1.20 a minute, rather than 19p. As a result, more than 32,145 customers were overcharged a total of £245,000.’

Unemployment

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning show that unemployment fell by 52,000 to 1.6 million in three months to November.

The jobless rate was steady at an 11-year low of 4.8 per cent while the employment rate was steady at a record 74.5 per cent. Average earnings rose by 2.7 per cent year-on-year. Public sector pay Nurses, teachers and firefighters’ pay will fall by thousands of pounds in real terms by the end of the decade.