CSRS & FERS Medical Disability Retirement: Like the Perfect Storm

As the Eastern Seaboard gets pummeled by Hurricane Sandy, one can see the analogy with those who have come to a point where preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether under FERS or CSRS, becomes a necessity.

It is the coagulation and coalescence of multiple factors, all coming together and making a direct impact upon an entity, geographical location, or in this particular case, a person, which defines a “perfect storm”.  For the Federal or Postal employee who finally sees the necessity for filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, the factors may involve:  the increasingly debilitating nature of the medical condition itself; the flashpoint of the Agency, where the agency is no longer showing any understanding or empathy for one’s medical condition (perhaps, as more likely is the case, they never showed any such understanding or empathy, anyway); the constricting resources because of the continuous need to exhaust sick and annual leave, and going out on LWOP; exhaustion of FMLA protection; adverse actions from the agency being proposed, including a Proposed Removal; and other similar actions and conditions coming to a forceful impetus where the Federal or Postal employee no longer has the luxury of considering applying for Federal or Postal Disability Retirement; rather, the time has come.  But many of those factors forcing the issues could be seen long before the perfect storm came to fruition.

Just as preparing for the onslaught of a hurricane can be adequately performed beforehand, the Federal or Postal employee should understand that the administrative process of preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits should be looked upon and considered long before that perfect storm hits.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire