Ian Ashurst and his wife, Catherine, are facing a difficult Christmas.

Last week Mrs Ashurst, 43, was made redundant from her position as an accountant in a local company. She looked after small-business accounts, but work had dried up in recent months and her company was forced to cut back on staff.

Mr Ashurst, 45, works as a company secretary of a large mortgage broker. They live in a four-bedroom detached home in Bristol with their 12-year-old daughter, Laura.

“It has been a real strain on the family and it feels like everything is up in the air at the moment,” Mr Ashurst said. “Catherine is looking for other positions but the options are fairly limited.”

The couple had a combined income of £110,000 before Mrs Ashurst lost her job, but now the family are having to look at their monthly budget with a view to making big savings.

Laura goes to Clifton High School, a private school in the centre of Bristol with fees of £9,000 a year. Mrs Ashurst’s salary used to cover this easily, but now that it is gone they are considering whether they might have to pull Laura out of the school.

“If we can’t afford the school fees in the future we may consider sending her to a local state school, but she is settled at Clifton and she would miss her friends if she left,” Mr Ashurst said.

The Ashursts have had to cancel their twice-yearly visits to Turkey, where they have a holiday apartment. To make up for the shortfall in earnings while Mrs Ashurst is not working, the family are selling off some investments and dipping into savings.

Mr Ashurst is also planning to sell-off his beloved stamp collection, which he has been building up for three years. He hopes to make about £500 a month by selling the stamps on eBay, the auction website.

Fortunately, the family have been helped by the Bank of England’s cut in interest rates this month. They are on a tracker mortgage, pegged to the base rate, and their repayments have fallen by about £250 in the past two months.

They do not expect to see much for them in the Pre-Budget Report today. “As a higher-rate taxpayer, I don’t expect to benefit directly from any tax cuts,” Mr Ashurst said.

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