Severance and unemployment, do they overlap? (update)

My employer is paying severance in instalments and I am not sure whether to file now. I would rather hear the honest version than the polite one. I have a mortgage and need to plan. How did your state treat it?

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It saved me later.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 3 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.