When to Claim?

YarnBomber

My husband was employed by the same company for 9 years. he's recently been fired for misconduct, but is appealing the decision. under the company's own rules, he should get full pay while the appeal is going on but they try to clear up appeals asap and due the situation surrounding hubby's dismissal, he really doesn't know if he will get his job back; but he has to try. he loved his job.

He's applying for jobs left, right and centre as well as preparing his appeal

When do we claim for support while he's job seeking? Neither of us want to go on benefits even for a short time, but we have no savings whatsoever and so it's a needs must situation. We know that he will face a sanction on JSA because of being dismissed for misconduct, but can we claim housing benefit? council tax? and what do we do for money while he's job seeking but not recieving JSA? I am unable to work outside the home due to mental health problems but was denied DLA 4 years ago when I was a lot more mental than I am now, and before they brought in the new rules and assessments so that's not an option. I am better than I was, but there are still problems. I was lucky in that hubby's wage allowed me to stay at home, so long as we are careful with money.

We also home educate our 7 year old daughter and I would be incredibly reluctant to put her into a school. I know local HE people who are on benefits, but their circumstances are very different; they're mostly long term single parents.

we privately rent our home, are lucky that our landlord is very understanding (more of a friend now really) and our full rent would be covered by our local housing allowance. Oh, and we just signed this year's contracts too.

So...
1. when do we apply?
2. if we apply ASAP, will they ignore it because he's still technically employed, albeit because he's been fired and is appealing? and
2a. if we apply for benefits, and the company then pays him (which we cannot guarantee will happen because we cannot guarantee how long the appeal will take), are we committing benefit fraud? will they stop the application and impose another sanction?
3. what can we claim for? what SHOULD we claim for?
4. Do we both have to claim for JSA? Will I be forced to search for jobs too? Will Child be forced into school?
5. will we lose our good standing with the bank if we do go on benefits? we've built up a good credit rating over the years by only borrowing what we know we can pay back, in full, as soon as possible.

Landlord's currently on holiday. We will tell him when he gets back.

I am sad and I am terrified. the last time we were both unemployed we had no dependants, no rent or bills as our only big expense was giving his dad a bit of room and board money a week for the room we shared and even then we struggled to find petrol money to get to and from interviews.

I am confident he can find another job, and like i said, he's applying all over the place for anything which seems even slightly suitable (wage, travelling distance and job particulars). He's also signed up with 6 different agencies for his particular industry and his CV is uploaded to 3 or 4 different recruiting sites too. we're both checking job ads every day just in case there's something new for him.

Thankyou for any information you can give on my questions, I'm so clueless and the .gov websites don't offer personal information for when situations are weird like ours.