Medical Retirement for Federal Workers: Being Effective is the Point

In preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is important to bifurcate the various and multitudinous issues, assign (implicitly) the import, relevance and correlative significance of each issue as it relates and satisfies the criteria for eligibility; then, to proceed to systematically delineate each such issue, yet present them in a narrative fashion such that they constitute a sufficiently human narrative to convey the impact of the medical condition.

As the Office of Personnel Management often attempts to rebut and argue, the “mere existence of a medical condition does not warrant approval of a Federal Disability Retirement application.”  That being said, a clinical approach to listing a set of diagnosed medical conditions obviously is insufficient to persuade and convince the Office of Personnel Management of one’s eligibility and entitlement to Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS.  For, isn’t that ultimately the point — to get it approved?

It becomes an act of futility to stand on a hilltop and repetitively declare, “I have a medical condition,” without being effective in presenting such a condition and obtaining an approval.  Of course, this is an administrative process; as such, it will often take more than the First Stage of the process before all of the factors coalesce with a resultant approval — the right balance between persuasion, facts, narrative form, medical documentation, legal argumentation, clinical notes, statement of disability, etc. Being “effective” means attaining that right balance between the medical, the legal, and the personal.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Early Retirement for Disabled Federal Workers: Formulating an Effective Statement

Writing can be a chore; writing to convey an abstract idea clearly and concisely can be draining; but, further, if writing is about one’s self, and the self-referential “I” is the central theme of the written formulation, it can be a draining chore.  In formulating the Applicant’s Statement of Disability (Standard Form 3112A) in preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is important to convey the multiple elements of “proof” which must be presented before the Office of Personnel Management.  

To this end, it is helpful to understand the eligibility elements under the law, including those elements which have been discussed in various Merit Systems Protection Board cases where Federal and Postal employees have been denied their initial and Reconsideration attempts at obtaining Federal Disability Retirement benefits. The heart of such cases always discuss, analyze, and evaluate the why, when and what of a Federal Disability Retirement case, and that is where the “meat” of the essential elements are contained.  Lawyers who practice in the area of law generically entitled, “Federal Disability Retirement Law” should and must study the “new” cases which are handed down, and this is why an attorney who practices in this area of law can be helpful — both in formulating the Applicant’s Statement, as well as in meeting all of the eligibility requirements under the law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire