Part II
The 'three month' claim period from the Govt you mention, seems to be a reference to the 'time limits' under the Employment Rights Act 1996. This actually seems to be a six month period with a six month extention depending upon the circumstances -again it doesn't help you though since your redundancy happened 14 months ago.
http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/employment-le gislation/employment-guidance/page15686.html#W hen_is_a_redundancy_payment_due
You are not entitled to anything more than the statutory minimum - unless your employer had promised to make such payments. But, this promise would have had to have been made BEFORE the company went bust, not after. It's a bit like 'musical chairs'. When the music stops every creditors right to the assets of the company freezes at that point. A promise made by the debtor to pay you more than another creditor ranked above you, or with an earlier entitlement than you will have no effect.
Your only remedy as far as I can see is that you may have a claim for compensation due to a failure to warn or consult about the impending redundancy. But again, this would appear to be a claim against a company that's already bust!! So I'm sorry; but I think you have no remedy.
Stu
p.s. The erm, car "incident", was a very silly act. It had nothing to do with wanting to practice law though. It was due to learning about deaths in the mining and shipbuilding industries, and the legislation passed in response to industrial disasters such as 'Aberfan', and asbestosis deaths. I learned that laws were passed in response to those human disasters and that law could prevent similar disasters occuring again.