Severance and unemployment, do they overlap? - 26 weeks in

My employer is paying severance in instalments and I am not sure whether to file now. This is my first time dealing with any of this. I also wonder about the job-search requirement. Who should I ask before signing?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 11 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

Some states only count certain kinds of severance. A local workforce centre could tell me which.