Personal-Finance

If you just got laid off in New York and HR handed you a severance agreement, the question gets expensive fast: can you take the severance and still collect unemployment? Sometimes, yes. In New York, severance is usually treated as dismissal pay, which can delay or block unemployment benefits. But the state also says that if your first severance payment arrives more than 30 days after your last day worked, you may still be eligible for unemployment if you meet the other rules. ...

You’ve probably been carrying this in the back of your mind for years. Maybe you haven’t heard from anyone in over a decade. Maybe the loan has been sold to a third or fourth collector by now and you’ve long since lost track of who even holds it. Maybe you’re just waiting, not sure if you’ll ever hear from them again, or if a letter is going to show up next month demanding a number you can’t pay. ...