Jobs, benefits and taxes: What Andy Burnham means for your finances

Here is a story making headlines in the economy: Jobs, benefits and taxes: What Andy Burnham means for your financesImage source, Getty ImagesByDharshini DavidDeputy economics editorPublished24 June 2026Updated 27 minutes agoAndy Burnham will become the UK's fifth prime minister in four years later today, but the financial challenges facing the country remain the same. Lack of job opportunities, lack of improvement in living standards and pressured public services – people expect change and their patience has been wearing thin. So here's what the new PM could mean for your money.

Household incomeEconomic growth and putting more money in pockets will have to remain the government's number one priority. Between 1990 and 2007, the average person was better off by roughly 2. Since then, living standards have improved at half that rate, meaning households are thousands of pounds worse off than they could've been otherwise.

Economic Details

A lack of investment – public and private – in the years of austerity and then following Brexit has taken its toll on productivity and that has affected our prosperity. This was then made worse by the disruption of Covid and higher energy prices. Meanwhile, food prices have jumped by 40% in just a few years, which has clobbered people's finances.

While we've been hit less by the US-Israel war with Iran than once feared, there remain several challenges to ensuring economic growth is raised sustainably and permanently. More investment is likely to be needed, and more focus on skills. While his plans remain unclear, Andy Burnham has implied boosting both – as well as more state control of utilities to lower bills.

JobsUnderpowered growth is one reason why hiring is at its lowest level for five years, with young people hit particularly hard. The reluctance from companies to hire reflects more than just recent economic woes. Automation and the government's own policies, including higher national minimum wages and taxes, have played a role.

Analyst Views

The latter is most telling in the concentration of job losses in sectors such as retail and hospitality. These are industries most vulnerable to an increase in labour costs and, crucially, they are typically a source of entry-level jobs. The recent report by former Labour minister Alan Milburn highlighted how a longer term erosion of such posts contributed the recent rise in youth joblessness, adding to the rising number of those not in employment, education, or training (NEETs).

He warned NEETs could rise to one in six young people, potentially blighting lives for decades. The second part of that report, containing policy recommendations, will be published later in the year. It's been suggested that it will call for a radical overhaul of the way every part of the public sector – from education to health and the welfare system – interacts with the private sector.

The next prime minister will have to decide exactly how those recommendations are taken on board, and there will be a cost involved.

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.