UNIONS lined up to slam Chancellor George Osborne’s failure to tackle low pay in his forthcoming budget yesterday and one called for an “urgent change of course” for Britain’s economy.

The minimum wage will rise by 3 per cent in October, putting 1.3m workers on a paltry £6.70 an hour. Thousands of others, including apprentices, will get even less.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “For the low paid to get a fair share of the recovery, this was a year in which we could have had a much bolder increase in the minimum wage.”

She said the rise was “nowhere near enough to end in-work poverty. Britain’s minimum wage workers should be very fearful of the billions of pounds of cuts to government help for the low paid that the Chancellor is planning if re-elected.”

Communication Workers Union general secretary Billy Hayes welcomed the increase but said: “This year of all years — when the economic recovery is continuing and there is a general election on the horizon — we expected the government to be bolder in sharing that success with low paid workers who have suffered most under this government.”

Northern region TUC secretary Beth Farhat said the Con-Dem government had “fundamentally failed” economically and has failed to reduce the deficit.

“As a result, we are set to borrow over £54 billion more this year than it originally planned, two thirds of which is a direct result of poor growth in wages. The UK urgently needs to change course,” she said.