Redundant but a company director - JSA or Universal credit

dinth1906

Hey all. This is my first post here and also the first time i am being forced to take benefits, i dont like it at all, but also im very confused.

Theoretically, my situation doesn't look as grim as for some other people, but - considering that the job market is terrible at the moment - it may quickly and uncontrollably spiral down if i dont get some financial help.

Here is an outline of my situation, i got redundant (from my employment) at the end of January. I also have an active Ltd company (contractor) which is also not operating at the moment (no work), which fortunately has some savings on the company account. Ive also got some debts on my credit cards circa 10k - some work at home done recently, which we could pay easily... if i wouldn't lose a job. My missus is working, earning 30k p/a. We own a house close to London and have a mortgage to pay off. We have a 1.5yo baby. The baby is currently in a nursery (3.5 days pw) which costs us 1200 pm. 

Here is the problem, the nursery costs us a lot of money (far more than missus could cover from her salary), but I really should keep it if i want to find a job. When we have put our baby on the waiting list to the nursery, we've been waiting for a place for 3 months, and now it may be even longer. Anyhow, with just a couple of new ads showing up on Linkedin in London, it will most likely take me months to find a job, even without telling potential employers that i need 3 months notice to find childcare for my kid.

Now, as far as i understand, my options are:

* JSA - 381 per month plus tax-free childcare (500 discount in 3 months). Pay out the company's money as dividend and use it to cover my credit card bills. Unfortunately, 381 pm will hardly cover the childcare costs, and since i cannot use credit card to pay for the nursery while claiming tax-free childcare at the same time, wrapping up my budget will be very hard on the beginning and only get worse.

* Get back on my company's payroll on a part-time basis and very low salary (looking for a client, doing some education) and claim Universal Credit as a low earner with the childcare cost UC cover.

* Mix of the both - use the company money to cover my credit card bills and find any low paid, part time job, claim Universal Credit as a low earner as above.

With Universal Credit it gets tricky, I have run those scenarios through three different UC calculators and 2 of them showed me that I will not get any UC, while one told me that i can circa 500-600 per month depending on how much money I will earn from the part-time job/my own company.

So my questions are:

1. Why 2 of the UC calculators show me that I won't be eligible for childcare cost part of UC even if i start working part-time and one shows me that I will be? What is the catch here?

2. Can i legally claim a low income UC when I'm employed by my own company?

3. Are there any rules covering how much i need to work/how much i need to earn to be considered low income employee and be able to claim some of my childcare costs via UC?