£600,000 a month in the red...

The dire financial situation was outlined to a county council scrutiny committee by chief executive Rob Sykes and director of finances Mike Weaver.

It also emerged that in the past four years Worcestershire Health Authority has ploughed £6m into the care of elderly, including £2m in this financial year.

Scrutiny committee chairman Peter Fallows said it was probably "the most serious catastrophe we have faced".

"Everybody must be shocked by that figure but it is rising week by week," said Mr Sykes.

"Not only is the plan to tackle the previous £2.1m deficit failing but the figure is going up.

"The sooner we act the less action we will have to take. We must move quickly to remedy this situation because it's getting away from us.

"In terms of this budget you take action now, but it takes time. Much of social services is now - it can't just be turned off.

"What we have got to do is try and protect the most vulnerable people in our society, but the longer we leave sorting these difficulties the greater the impact on those vulnerable people."

Simon Heng, chairman of the Worcestershire Association of Service Users, said the reality was elderly people not being able to return home after illness, mentally ill-people losing transport services, and people forced to live in squalor because they could not clean their own homes.

"This is about people who are scared the situation is going to get worse," he said.

"The buzz word at the moment seems to be consultation and the very least you can do is give us the information so we can feel we're being consulted."

Mr Sykes said the county council was striving to find a balance between acting quickly and putting in place a detailed recovery plan.

"We are six months into the year and the graph is still rising," he added.

"I don't know whether we can balance the books in social services. We're going to have to put a plan together and go into a lot of detail."