If you do so, it will be denied. The employer will respond with a copy of what was offered in terms of severance. Then you are out of gas with UE AND with the severance package, which the employer can pull back after needing to waste time explaining that to Dept of Workforce Svcs / Dept of Labor. It's one or the other - you can't get both.
Not true. There are several types of severance packages, one for terminated employees and another for permanently laid off employees.
For the terminated employee, it is a lump sum payoff, not designated for any future pay periods. That allows the terminated employee to file for U.I. It is then up to the employer to protest the claim and prove that the termination was due to misconduct. In the case of this guy, that is unlikely.
The other type of severance, the permanently laid off, that usually provides for a specified monthly continuation of salary based on years of seniority and is a percentage of his weekly or monthly salary offset by any unemployment benefits he is entitled to......
Since this guy has not provided a copy of his severance agreement, it is useless to engage in a debate as to what he is or isn't entitled to based solely on his statement that he was fired.
And as I said before, based on Wisconsin's "at will" law, it's unlikely any attorney will even speak with him unless he's willing to fork over whatever consultation fee the attorney demands......