I know how Ohio unemployment works inside and out. The short answer to your question is YES, you can get unemployment and severance, BUT not at the same time! If your former employer paid you severance retroactive to your last day of work, then you can start getting unemployment right away (after serving the normal/required Waiting Week). But if the severance payment is for a period after your last day of work, as it is in most cases, then your unemployment payments will not start until after your severance period ends. The employer will tell the unemployment office what the severance period is (it starts this date and ends this date). For instance, let's say your last day of work was March 28, 2009, your regular pay was $500 per week, and the company is paying you $1000 severance. Then it is almost certain that the severance will be for the period March 29 through April 11, 2009 (2 weeks). So you would not receive your first unemployment check until TWO weeks after the severance period ends (April 11th). Two weeks because you have to serve the Waiting Week (the week after your severance period ends), which is the week of April 12-18. So the first week you'd get an unemployment check for is the week of April 19-25, which you would file on April 26. By the way, when you file your application for unemployment, you will be asked if you received, or will receive, severance. Then they will send you a form within a few days after that to ask for specifics about the severance such as how much and for what period it covers. They'll then match your answer to whatever your employer said (or didn't say).
