Severance

Periodically, we have reductions in our workforce and have accrued liabilities for the related severance costs. These workforce reductions resulted primarily from the progression or completion of our post-acquisition integration plans related to CenturyLink's indirect acquisition of us, increased competitive pressures, cost reduction initiatives and reduced workload demands due to the loss of customers purchasing certain legacy services.

We report severance liabilities within accrued expenses and other liabilities-salaries and benefits in our consolidated balance sheets and report severance expenses in cost of services and products and selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations.

Changes in our accrued liability for severance expenses were as follows:



	Severance
	(Dollars in millions)
Balance at December 31, 2013	$	5
Accrued to expense	44
Payments, net	(39		)
Balance at December 31, 2014	$	10
Accrued to expense	51
Payments, net	(55		)
Balance at December 31, 2015	$	6