Some stream of consciousness thoughts: First, there is still the prevailing problem of Federal or Postal workers being lead to believe that there is some sort of sequential requirement in filing for Social Security Disability benefits (SSDI) and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
While the sequence of filing for SSDI would be logically coherent — i.e., since at the time of an approval of a FERS Disability Retirement Application, the Office of Personnel Management requests to see a receipt of filing from the Social Security Administration — many people in fact go this route. But the problem arises when Federal and Postal employees somehow get the misinformation that they must wait until they receive an approval from SSDI, which can take years.
During the wait, the 1-year statute of limitations may come and go.
The solution: Go ahead and file for SSDI, get a receipt, etc. But never allow the 1-year Statute of Limitations to pass in filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Again, for OPM purposes, all that is required is a mere showing of a receipt that you filed; no determination needs to be made and, moreover, OPM only requests to see the receipt at the time of an approval.
Second, if SSDI approves your Social Security Disability Case at any time during the process of filing for OPM disability retirement benefits, it can have a persuasive impact, but not a determinative one. This merely means that OPM will consider it in the totality of the medical evidence you submit. But to have a persuasive impact, you need to make the “legal” argument — i.e., you need to try and persuade.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability & SSA Social Security Disability Benefits | Tagged: are fers disability retirement applicants required to file for ssdi too?, beware of the opm's one-year statute of limitations when considering filing for ssdi, disabled federal employees applying for ssdi, do I have to "qualify" for social security before getting any opm disability benefits?, federal disability and social security disability retirement, federal disability attorney, federal employee disability, FERS Disability, fers disability and social security disability insurance ssdi, filing for ssdi benefits as part of the opm disability retirement process, if you can use social security disability in your opm disability claim, legal representation for injured federal workers, nationwide representation of federal employees, no sequential file needed for opm disability retirement and ssdi purposes, not approval but only a receipt that the opm applicant applied for ssdi, opm disability and social security disability, opm disability and social security eligibility, OPM disability attorney, opm requires to file for ssdi benefits but not to get approved, owcp disability retirement, postal and social security disability, questions about the about the fers and social security disability ssi process, social security dis, social security disability and the opm's 1-year statute of limitations, social security disability compensation for opm disability retirees, submitting the social security disability application receipt, the light duty postal employee considering ssdi benefits, the ssdi receipt that fers disability applicants need to submit to the opm, using your ssdi approval wisely, USPS disability retirement, usps worker & social security disability |
Leave a Reply