Does severance pay count towards social security income?

The simple answer is no. This was taken directly from the Social Security Website...

"After you retire, you may receive ­payments for work you did before you started getting Social Security benefits. Usually, those payments will not affect your Social Security benefit if they are for work done before you retired. This fact sheet describes some of the more common types of special payments, helps you to decide if you received any and tells you what steps to take if you did.

What qualifies as special payments...If you worked for wages, income received after retirement counts as a special payment if the last thing you did to earn the payment was completed before you stopped working. Some special payments to employees include bonuses, accumulated vacation or sick pay, severance pay, back pay, standby pay, sales commissions and retirement payments or deferred compensation reported on a W-2 form for one year, but earned in a previous year. These amounts may be shown on your W-2 in the box labeled "Nonqualified Plan."