I am very familiar with Ohio unemployment and how severance affects it. There's a lot of detail, but the short answer is that a lump sum is much better for you than being paid over an extended period of time. I'm assuming the severance you're receiving is based on a certain number of weeks of regular wages. For instance, $1000 to represent 2 weeks of $500/wk regular wages that you earned. If the severance period is the two weeks AFTER your last day of work, then you will not get unemployment for those two weeks (assuming the severance is more than your weekly unemployment amount). Once the severance period ends, then you will serve the required Waiting Week, and then, finally, the following week will be the first week for which you are paid unemployment. So to sum up, 2 weeks of severance, then waiting week, the week 1 of being paid. The only thing that would change of this would be IF the employer said the severance was applied to your last day of work, meaning that you would NOT have to wait the extra two weeks. This is the best-case scenario. But almost all severance is applied for the weeks AFTER the final day of work. By the way, you gave absolutely no details about the severance so I couldn't be more specific. The way you asked the question was very vague. So if you need more specifics, then give all the details you can and I'll reply back. Good luck!
