Have a look at this site - Entitled to
It will give you a good idea of what you're entitled to.
A common mistake is to think that the job centre can advise you on what you're entitled to. They can't and they won't. They can only tell you if you are entitled to the benefit you are applying for. (Which is a bit of a problem if you don't know what you should be applying for!)
So, they will most likely point you in the direction of job seekers allowance, council tax benefit and housing benefit. But they probably won't enter into a conversation with you about whether you're entitled to claim child tax credits, or whether income support might be better for you in your situation.
I'm not sure about this - perhaps others can advise - but I think perhaps as a single parent you might be entitled to income support. It's possible that income support is preferable to JSA as I think if you're on it, you don't have to jump through all their hoops WRT job seeking. That's not to say you can't job hunt on your own, but it's much less of a PITA to not have to deal with them IMO. If I was you I would phone your citizen's advice bureau to find out what you're entitled to before dealing with the dole.
Also, if you're not used to dealing with the dole, my advice to you is to keep your expectations low! Make and keep copies of everything you give to them. If you hand a form in, get a receipt.
From personal experience, they are perfectly capable of loosing your forms / giving you duff advice / sending you on a merry dance. The last time I signed on, dealing with them actually got in the way of getting a job, it was so time-consuming (and frustrating!) Thankfully I didn't have to do it for too long.