Can you collect unemployement while collecting Severance?

by Anonymous

(California)

I’m in CA and my work went out of business. My work is paying us for 2 additional months (we get a check every 2 weeks). Several of my co-workers are collecting both, and I was recently told by another one that you can’t. I am confused, and don’t know if I will have to pay back the money.

Hi Anonymous,

I had a question the other day which prompted me to explore this issue. You can find my answer to this question on this page. Don’t be thrown by the question which was about being fired. I try to answer any issue a question might raise and this one had a severance pay issue.

The short answer is “it depends in California” and the answer I linked to above has links to the details which explain it.

Comments for Can you collect unemployement while collecting Severance?

Average Rating

Aug 14, 2010
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Yes you can

by: Anonymous

Hello. I live in California and I too was laid off of my job because the call center closed. We had an unemployment claims representative come in and speak to us and she let us know that we can still collect unemployment while also collecting severance. It is at no fault of your own that you were laid off, and your severance has no bearings on what you qualify for as far as unemployment benefits. I myself am collecting both.

I suspect this is because California has some “fairly” well guidelines about severance pay and if it is considered wages.laid out

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