Is it possible to apply for unemployment in Texas if you receive severance pay? If so, is it better to apply before or after receiving the severance payment?
5 replies (most recent on top)
If you volunteered to be separated (EOI), then no. Otherwise, yes.
After severance is paid out
You are not eligible if you are also receiving a severance and it's a crime to lie on the forms. That said, some have managed to receive it one way or another. I believe that the technicality is your severance is supposed to have ended, then you are eligible. Some view that as the next week after they got their severance check I suppose. Many of us are more concerned about getting a job than lying on forms for a couple hundred bucks.
@a4+1jqjd69fc: Spot on advise! When I was laid off, I received unemployment benefits immediately after receiving my severance. To be honest, however, unemployment does not pay much relative to the salaries many earn within the oil industry, comes with some reporting obligations, and complicates taking on short-term gigs: So don't set your expectations too high.
My feedback is:
Yes, you can apply for unemployment in Texas when you are laid off. Unless the paper work you are provided for signature specifically states you are not eligible to apply for unemployment as a condition of the severance package. The paperwork DOES NOT need to say you ARE eligible.
I have been laid off from companies before and one time I paid an attorney to review the paperwork for me. The attorney specifically told me this. He told me sometimes HR or the manager terminating you may tell you that you are not eligible but this verbal opinion is not true. The statement must be in the severance paperwork.
If you are eligible according to the paperwork because it is not in writing, you want to apply after the next pay date when you have received the lump sum, e.g. severance payment on July 7th, then apply for unemployment on or after July 16th. This will be the next period after the paycheck and at this point you are no longer receiving a salary.
If you decide to get an attorney to review the severance paperwork, certainly ask them because I am not an attorney.
I do not plan to have an attorney review my paperwork because I have been laid off before and I have previous severance paperwork to compare the Chevron offer too. In my opinion, the Chevron paperwork will not be written to steal anything or cheat you, they just don't want to be sued from an employee and the bigger problem for Chevron is if people go to a national media outlet and get a story distributed about how they are replacing US workers with people from India. This type of news can negatively their brand and the brand is everything at Chevron.