Never signed anything regarding severance pay, got it anyways,will this cause UI denial?

[haditj]

Jurisdiction

Texas

Got laid off exactly one week ago. On video call was told I would get severance pay of two weeks. Didn't think much of it at the time nor did I sign anything or verbally confirm anything. Was mostly just thinking of what I was going to do next.

Immediately applied for unemployment. three days later they drop the severance pay in my account without me realizing. Now, when on the phone with TWC, they tell me that they will be contacting my employer soon for the final steps of claim approval but then tell me severance might affect my benefits. They ask if I signed anything which I reply with I did not.

Is this going to affect me? Is there anything I can do to combat this if it does affect me. Im relying on these benefits and I feel like my ex horrible boss just intentionally screwed me underhandedly.

I have been getting some conflicting sources of people saying this will only delay my benefits by 2 weeks vs people saying this will give a chance it will deny it all together. Which is it? I am trying to see if trying to negotiate with my employer via email to return the severance is the best option.

 

[adjusterjack]

The following is from the TWC website. It's on the employer page but should be helpful to you.

Severance Pay
Severance pay is a sum of money an employee is eligible to receive upon job separation. You may have a company policy to pay severance pay. Texas law prohibits individuals from qualifying for unemployment benefits while receiving certain types of severance pay. We make a decision on whether the severance pay affects the claimant's benefits.

Here's the page for employees:

Unemployment Benefits Services - Texas Workforce Commission

And here are some search results about severance pay:

Search | Texas Workforce Commission

Study carefully.

 

[cbg]

Unless Texas has some rules that are very different from the rest of the US, severance will not cause your UI to be denied outright. From what Jack has posted it is likely that it may cause your benefits to be delayed but only by the length of time the severance covers.