Company started serverance payments...I got one week. The statement I signed was for approximately 5 months of severance, so they're a little short :)

The company may go bankrupt, but has not. Yet.

Next step is what?

They waited 45 days after being laid off to start payments so I've been without pay for quite a while and if I'm going to end up with nothing in the end due to BK, then I'd prefer not to have a lawyer...

What should I do?

Without knowing any of the language in the severance agreement you signed, it's not possible to know whether the company is actually obligated to pay you the severance. A typical severance agreement basically says "we'll provide you with X" in exchange for which, you agree "not to do Y."

Y could include not bringing any legal action against the company under an employment law regulations (e.g. a discrimination claim), a confidentiality agreement, a non-compete agreement, and so on. If the company doesn't hold up their end of the deal by providing the severance payments to you, you're free to do anything that you agreed not to do in the agreement.

If you want more specific information, you're going to have to show the severance agreement to an attorney or someone with sufficient knowledge of these types of documents to advise you.

Agree with Beth3. If anything, this would be a breach of contract, not a wage and hour issue.

Have you called to ask about it? We could only begin to guess why this happened. Could be they aren't paying it out lump sum. Could be anything. Unless you ask the company directly you aren't going to know why.

Thanks for the responses!

I called...there's a letter being sent to me. HR read it off and it was quite simple in the stopping of severance payments...it states that the company is "unable to make any more payments" and that nothing more would be recieved.

I re read through my agreement, and severance would be paid to me if I withheld any "complaints, charges, or lawsuits against the Company Releasees" and sent back my work computer (which I did)

Obviously, I initially met the requirements as they sent me one check :)

I appreciate any response....the pain of the matter is that it has messed up unemployment who thinks I'm getting severance...

You are free to show the letter to an attorney and see what s/he says.

Even if the severance agreement is enforceable if the employer is no longer financially able to make any more payments & declares bankruptcy as you noted they might, you may still not get your severance or all of it.

You would have to file a proof of claim, as a creditor, with the bankruptcy court along with all the employer's other creditors. Whether you get paid & how much would depend on various factors including the assets of the company & the # of other creditors.