Severance and unemployment, do they overlap? - any advice?

My employer is paying severance in instalments and I am not sure whether to file now. Thank you in advance. I also wonder about the job-search requirement. Did you file straight away?

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

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.