Sometimes right away, but again, it depends on your specific dates of employment and the nature of the severance payment. And how you handle the severance payment with the Texas Workforce Commission can affect whether it sets off a red flag later as to fraud—when it looks like you were still working for the employer while collecting unemployment. If it’s a true severance payment in exchange for waiving rights to sue the company, then it’s not fraud, but it’s still good to avoid even the opening of a fraud investigation against you.

And whatever you do, don’t assume you can’t get unemployment benefits until after the period represented by your severance pay (for example, “six weeks’ pay”), and potentially miss many weeks of additional money in your pocket. My firm has often helped our clients make up our modest severance agreement review fee simply with our advice on unemployment benefits. In other words, talking to us about your severance agreement can potentially make you money. (Kerry O’Brien is a former unemployment appeals hearing officer with the Texas Workforce Commission.)

Keep in mind, also, that if the employer doesn’t terminate you or force you to resign, but instead gives you an option to resign (where you could genuinely say “no thank you” and keep working), it can affect your entitlement to unemployment benefits if you choose the resignation option. This comes up most often with mass layoffs at large companies, where a class of employees may be given the option to take a severance package now, or continue to work. You may not be entitled to unemployment even if the company in writing agrees not to contest your unemployment benefits claim, because it’s the TWC’s decision based on unemployment law. Talk to a lawyer about this situation.