Redundancy - Payment, benefits, insurance and self-employment

Leini

I've just been made redundant after 10 1/2 years with my employer - so settlement payment is reasonable but certainly doesn't come anywhere near to the £30k tax line! I should get about £17.5k + about £2.5k from selling shares bought through employee sharesave scheme over the years I've worked there. However I have about £20k of debt between loans, credit cards, overdraft, etc. (this is in addition to my mortgage).

Luckily I have a small redundancy insurance in place which should cover the mortgage - a requirement of this is that i'm registered as a jobseeker through the job centre scheme.

I need to find out how best to register for benefits and what the best way to deal with redundancy income and debts in order to ensure I get the best out of the benefit available.

I'm also seriously considering setting up my own business rather than going back into employment - this will cost approximately £10k for work van, insurance, advertising, etc. to set up then there will be a period of time whilst I build up the business before it's making a living wage.

What advice can you offer? I've tried local Citizen's Advice but they don't have anyone who can offer the financial advice, they're willing to talk through self-employment but not benefits as they say I should speak to the job centre about this (obviously I want to make sure I know where I stand BEFORE speaking to them as I don't want to say the wrong thing or tick the wrong box and end up missing out on what i would otherwise be entitled to - and from speaking to others the local job centre isn't forthcoming with advice over how to do things for the best outcome!!).

What do i do first, who should i speak to?