In preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, the question is often asked whether and when an Agency should be informed of the impending Federal Disability Retirement application.
Such a question & answer is almost always a discretionary one, and there is not a “right” answer — only one which can result from the tailored responses of specific and individual circumstances. For, on the one hand, the Agency will often already suspect that filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, and therefore the automatic loss of the applicant/employee, is an inevitable future certainty, and therefore such notification is merely a formality.
The Agency is often anxious to have the backlog of work created by the employee’s non-attendance or sporadic attendance resulting from the chronic medical conditions, to be abated at some point, and therefore hiring a replacement is something which the Agency wants accomplished as soon as possible — and one might argue that informing the Agency is the “right thing” to do.
But in representing a Federal or Postal employee in a Federal Disability Retirement case, the “right thing” always is looking after the best interests of the client, and informing the agency prior to filing is not always in the best interests of the client. For, on the other hand, informing the Agency too soon will often result in unintended consequences — of reactions and initiated actions upon being informed of the very intention of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.
While unfortunate and even perhaps “retaliatory” in nature, Agencies often act/react only upon official notification of an intention. In other words, the proverbial “elephant in the room” is only noticed when the elephant actually stomps its feet (or is it “hooves”?). Whether and when is a discretionary decision by the Federal or Postal employee.
Ultimately, of course, when the Federal Disability Retirement application is filed through the Agency for further processing before being forwarded to the Office of Personnel Management, the Agency will be fully informed. But as to “pre-informing” the Agency — that all depends upon the individual circumstances of the Federal or Postal employee, taking into account first and foremost the best interests of the client when represented by an OPM Disability Retirement attorney.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Clarifications of Laws or Rules | Tagged: adverse agency reaction, an impending federal disability retirement claim, before asking general questions read the faq federal fers disability section, civil service disability, common questions & answers in fers federal disability retirement, consequences of an agency's adverce action, faq in disability retirement fers, fear of agency's reaction to my disability claim, Federal Disability, federal disability retirement, FERS disability retirement, fers disability retirement and your agency's hr department, frequent questions asked in federal disability retirement, how will your agency will react after they find out about your illness?, is it smart for you to give your last bit of good health to your agency?, letting the agency know about your opm disability application, notifying the Agency, OPM disability retirement, opm sick leave, owcp disability retirement, possible agency's reactions to your opm disability filing, Postal disability, pursuing medical retirement from a us government agency, questions frequently asked about compensation for injury in the federal sector, representing federal employees from any us government agency, sick federal employee's non-attendance issues, the loss of a disabled federal employee, turning your opm disability retirement to your agency, USPS disability retirement, when a federal agency is anxious to replace a disabled employee |
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