TAXPAYERS across Worcestershire face being hit with a £3 million bill to hand low paid workers the new National Living Wage, it has emerged.

Your Worcester News can reveal how Worcestershire County Council has told HR officers to frantically draw up the implications on offering 10 per cent pay rises to potentially hundreds of people.

Chancellor George Osborne used his summer Budget to announce a new £7.20-an-hour minimum pay rate from April 2016 to all over 25s.

It means all public sector workers on the current legal minimum wage of £6.50 who reach the age criteria are due the rise.

Although very few in-house staff at County Hall are on the minimum wage, nearly all of its adult care work is contracted out to third party providers who routinely employ people on the lowest rates.

The Conservative leadership is even suggesting it may explore outside grant funding to meet the bill.

Councillor Sheila Blagg, the cabinet member for adult social care, said: "The National Living Wage is a reality, and as a reality we will manage and implement that over the coming year.

"We have quite a crude, ballpark figure where we think we are going next year of £3 million, and that £3 million will obviously have to be found, it's not a choice.

"We'll have rearrange what we're doing and perhaps look at other grant facilities to call upon, but we'll have to manage that - it's early days and I can't say how it'll happen, but absolutely it will happen."

She has stressed that the estimate is rough one and is yet to be firmed up.

But a £3 million bill would prove a seriously tough ask for an authority looking to save around £25 million a year due to falling Government support and huge demographic pressures.

Yesterday the council said it wanted talks with its contractors over how to manage the pay rise.

A spokesman added: "It is currently too early to have a detailed and accurate picture of how the National Living Wage will impact on our budgets."

The National Living Wage will rise to £9 an hour by 2020 under Mr Osborne's plans.

Worcester City Council will not be affected by the Government move as it decided to hand all its lowest paid workers £7.85 per hour in 2013 after a decision by the old Labour administration.

Wychavon District Council is in the same position, while in Malvern only two agency workers are currently on less than £7.20 - and if they stay beyond 12 weeks their pay will take them over that threshold anyway.