PA UC documentation confusion - do I upload both final paycheck and severance stub?

just upload both to be safe thats what i did when i got laid off from my nursing job last yr. better to give them too much than not enough trust me

You absolutely need to upload BOTH documents. PA UC needs to see all forms of income from your former employer during the separation period. The severance payment is considered a type of separation pay under Section 404(d)(1) of PA UC Law and must be reported. If you only submit the regular paycheck, the examiner will likely flag your account for missing documentation when they cross-reference with employer reports, which could lead to an overpayment determination later.

I HAD THE EXACT SAME ISSUE!!! I uploaded only my final paycheck and they put an "open issue" on my claim for 5 WEEKS!! Then they made me do a phone interview about the "unreported income" because my employer had reported the severance to them. Such a waste of time and my payments were delayed forever. UPLOAD BOTH!!!!!

I had a similar situation last year. You need to upload both documents, but here's something important to understand: severance pay may affect your UC benefits depending on how it was paid out. In PA, if your severance was paid as a lump sum, it's allocated to the week immediately following your separation. That means you might not be eligible for benefits for that specific week, but it shouldn't affect weeks after that. Make sure both documents are clearly labeled when you upload them - I wrote "Final Regular Paycheck" and "Severance Payment" on mine before scanning. This helps the examiner process your claim faster without needing clarification.

anyone else think its ridiculous how complicated they make this whole process?? like why not just say "upload ALL final payment docs" instead of making ppl guess. its almost like they WANT us to make mistakes so they can deny benefits 🙄

After dealing with this exact situation, I discovered Claimyr and it was a lifesaver. When I was confused about documentation requirements, I couldn't get through to anyone at PA UC for days. With Claimyr, I got connected to an actual UC rep in about 30 minutes who confirmed I needed both stubs and explained exactly how the severance would affect my benefits. Their video demo (https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2) shows how it works. Definitely check out claimyr.com if you need clarification from a real person instead of guessing what documents to upload.

One more thing to be aware of: make sure the earnings dates on both stubs are clearly visible. The UC examiner needs to see when these payments were for, not just the payment date. This is particularly important with severance since they allocate it to specific weeks. If the dates aren't clear, they might put your claim on hold until they can verify the information with your employer, which can add weeks to the process.

i think it also depends on how much ur severance was? my cousin got like 6 months severance from his company and he couldnt get UC until that was all used up but if its just 1 week maybe its different idk the rules are weird

Just went through this exact same thing 2 months ago! Definitely upload BOTH stubs. I made the mistake of only uploading my regular final paycheck at first and got a message back asking specifically for "all separation payments including severance." Had to resubmit and it delayed everything by like 3 weeks. The system flags incomplete documentation automatically when they cross-check with what your employer reported. Save yourself the headache and just include everything from the start - regular pay stub, severance stub, any unused PTO payments, everything. They'd rather see too much than too little!