TWC approved my claim but no payment showing - severance pay confusion?

Your severance is absolutely the issue here. TWC considers severance pay as disqualifying income during the weeks it's allocated to. Since you got a lump sum, they'll divide the total amount by your weekly benefit amount to determine how many weeks you're disqualified from receiving benefits. For example, if your severance was $4,500 and your weekly benefit amount is $750, you'd be disqualified for 6 weeks after your initial claim. This is why you're approved but not receiving payment yet. To see payment status, log into your TWC account, go to "Claim and Payment Status" and then "Payment Information." If no payments have been made, it won't show anything yet.

I had the same exact problem last year! The system is so confusing because they don't clearly explain the severance thing. YES you absolutely MUST continue requesting payments every two weeks on your assigned day, even during the disqualification period. If you don't, your claim could be cancelled completely and you'd have to start over. The good news is that once your disqualification period ends, you'll start receiving benefits automatically as long as you've been doing your payment requests and work searches. Hang in there!

the TWC system is GARBAGE!!! they always say different things depending on who you talk to or what number you call. i was approved too but didn't get paid for 2 MONTHS because of some "system flag" that nobody bothered to tell me about until i finally got through to someone who actually knew what they were doing. Bet you anything they're holding your money hostage because of some tiny detail in your application that doesn't match what they want. They LOVE looking for reasons not to pay people!!

I got a severance too when I left my job in January. Just keep doing your payment requests every 2 weeks and your work searches (3 per week). My payments started automatically after my severance period was over. It was exactly 5 weeks for me.

When I was trying to deal with my TWC claim last month, I discovered Claimyr (claimyr.com) and it was a game-changer. I was calling for days with no luck, then used their service and got connected to a TWC rep in about 15 minutes. They basically hold your place in line so you don't have to keep redialing. Saved me hours of frustration! They have a demo video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/V-IMvH88P88?si=kNxmh025COIlIzKh. Definitely worth it to get a straight answer about your severance situation.

The confusion between the different phone lines is bcause the atuomated system just tells you if a request was SUBMITTED not if it was PROCESSED or APPROVED for payment. So one system sees your submitted request while the live person is looking at whether a payment was actually authorized. Also you need to check your determination letter in your correspondence inbox on the TWC portal. It will tell you exactly how many weeks your disqualified for due to severance. It should say something like "disqualified from [date] to [date] due to receipt of severance pay."

Make sure you're still fulfilling your work search requirements during the disqualification period! Document everything. TWC requires 3 work search activities each week. If you don't do them during the disqualification period, they can deny your benefits once that period ends. Also, remember that your benefit year lasts for 52 weeks from when you applied, but you only get 26 weeks of actual benefits within that time. The weeks you're disqualified for severance still count against your total 26 weeks of benefit eligibility.

My friend said they got back pay for all the weeks they were waiting but I never did. Anybody know if thats a thing?

Thanks everyone for the helpful information! I found my determination letter and now understand why I'm not receiving payments yet. I'll keep submitting my payment requests every two weeks and doing my work searches until the disqualification period ends. At least now I know what's going on instead of being in the dark! One last question - will TWC send me any kind of notification when my payments are about to start, or do I just need to watch my bank account?