Delaying the Filing of Your OPM Disability Retirement Application

Delay temporarily suspends for a time in the future; sometimes, at the cost of immediacy of pain, but the human capacity to ignore and obfuscate allows for procrastination to be an acceptable act of non-action.  But certain issues defy the control of delay; medical conditions tend to remind us of that, where attempted suspension of dealing with the pain, the progressively debilitating triggers, or the panic attacks which paralyze; they shake us to the core and pursue a relentless path which betrays procrastination.

For Federal employees and Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents him or her from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, filing for Federal Disability Retirement becomes an employment option.

When to file has some room for delay; it is, after all, the underlying issue which must be attended to first and foremost — that of the medical condition.  But the Statute of Limitations in a Federal Disability Retirement case imposes a structural administrative procedure which cannot be ignored.  The Federal and Postal worker who is separated from Federal Service must file a Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, within one (1) year of being separated from Federal Service.

So long as the Federal or Postal worker is on the rolls of the agency, the tolling of the statute of limitations does not begin; but once separation from service occurs, the 1-year clock (with some exceptions, but ones which you should not rely upon to subvert the statute of limitations) begins.

Delay for a specific purpose is sometimes acceptable (if one is still on the agency rolls), as in undergoing a medical procedure or seeing if a treatment regimen will work; but delay beyond the bureaucratic imposition of a statute of limitations is never one which should be allowed, as the benefit of a OPM Disability Retirement annuity will be barred forever.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: Waiting for the Perfect Storm

Calamities can be admired, if from a distance; and the labeling of a natural event as the “perfect storm” reveals a conceptual sense of awe for that which is at once destructive, but simultaneously of sufficient power as to demand respect. It has come to mean the coalescence of elements and circumstances which, each in their individually separate characteristic, may result in a force of some sufficiency, but in the collective combination, enhances an exponential magnitude well beyond the capability of potency generally imagined.

Such occurrences are rare, and the statistical chances of attaining such perfection of disparate elements to be coordinated in time, space and defying potential variances, results in the rare aberration of such events. To wait upon such an historical event is to defy the odds; to expect to witness one in one’s lifetime is to disregard the astronomical statistical anomalies.

Such rarity of events, however, are just as often ignored in other arenas of life, though perhaps of lesser impact upon the world at large, including personal calamities involving the introduction of a medical condition which impacts one’s life. Federal and Postal Workers who are beset with a medical condition such that the injury, disability or progressively deteriorating condition may prevent one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s positional duties for the Federal government or the U.S. Postal Service, will often engage in procrastination in filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, by waiting upon the coalescence of all elements to a point of perfection — of waiting, in essence, upon the occurrence of the perfect storm.

Such delay is merely an excuse to fail to act, precisely because the coordinated combination will almost always have some elements missing. In responding to a crisis, there is rarely a right time; instead, the very definition of a crisis involves the rarity of the event, guided by the timeliness of an action in order to avoid the beauty and destructive force of that perfect storm.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement for Federal Government Employees: The Shutdown

It is always the unassuming worker who becomes impacted by the larger geopolitical decisions made by the power brokers of the world.  While the short term impact of the current government shut down will apparently not interrupt the flow of disability pension checks, we must wait to see whether a protracted stalemate will reverberate with negative consequences.

For Federal and Postal Workers who are facing the unwanted challenges of a medical condition, and who are contemplating filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, the current state of affairs will likely mean further delays in the processing of one’s Federal Disability Retirement application.

As personnel offices in agencies across the United States shut down, so the magnitude of interrupted processing of disability retirement packets will exponentially increase over time.  But Federal and Postal workers who file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits have no real alternative options than to move forward; the sooner one files, the sooner one is able to find a place in line; and though the line may move at a slower pace, it will ultimately move nonetheless.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

OPM Disability Retirement: The Problem of the Incremental Loss of Time

This short adage has probably been told in the past, but it is nevertheless instructive and applicable:  In a local courthouse, there is a sign on the desk of the clerk which receives and processes pleadings from lawyers and lay litigants, and it states:  “The fact that you have waited until the last minute does not constitute a dire emergency for me”  Now, from the viewpoint of the attorney or lay person who is proceeding pro se, such a preemptive assertion may seem rather cold-hearted; but from the perspective of the clerk, who has seen many such pleas for mercy because of an imminent deadline, it is merely a warning of intolerance.

Time can pass away in incremental aggregates which become days, months; and suddenly, the calendric year has slipped away. This often happens for the Federal or Postal employee who is considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Time becomes delayed in incremental bits of precious bundles, and before you know it, one’s agency has lost any accrued good will or patience, and finances become increasingly more difficult to manage.   Illnesses and medical conditions have a way of suspending time and making such a constraining conceptual construct an irrelevancy; for, if time can be divided in the gauging of events, celebrations, occurrences bifurcated by differentiating responsibilities — i.e., work; chores; weekends; obligations; appointments, etc. — the great equalizer is a medical condition, precisely because whether it is the chronic pain, or a psychiatric condition which impacts one’s focus, concentration, mood, etc., then time becomes a single continuum indistinguishable because everything is concentrated upon overcoming the medical condition.  All that one can do in such a quandary, is to attempt to delay various responsibilities through incremental procrastination.

In preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, it is important not to allow for the problem of incremental loss of time to impede the ability to effectively and properly prepare and file a Federal Disability Retirement case.  Now is the time to inquire, prepare, and begin to plan; for “now” constitutes the stop-gap to the loss of time.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Postal and Federal Disability Retirement: Procrastinating within the Tolling Statute

Whether by resignation or by separation by the Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service, the tolling of the Statute of Limitations for filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS begins — and the statute allows for filing for a Federal Disability Retirement application within one (1) year of such separation from Federal Service.

Exceptions to the rule of the Statute of Limitations are few, explicit, and rarely allowed, and have to do with mental incompetence, narrowly defined, hospitalization for mental illness, appointment of a guardianship which shows one’s inability to attend to one’s daily affairs, etc.  Thus, once the Federal or Postal employee is separated from Federal Service, one should count on filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits within one (1) year of such separation, and not rely upon any fantasy of being granted any extension, or excused for having had periodic or episodic medical conditions preventing one from engaging in certain acts or attending to various activities.

Procrastination is a trait of luxury unique to the human animal; because animals, whether domesticated or not, have an innate sense of urgency for purposes of survivability, the ability to project into the future and delay the necessary immediacy of a present response, is an alien characteristic.  

Such an element of artifice — procrastination — would not have any meaningful foundational purpose, a “telos“, which would make any sense; except, of course, for the human condition.  Because of the complexity of the human condition — of the technological world we have created, of multiple tasks, of time, movement and being within the context of our historicity, present world and future anticipated occurrences — procrastinating has become an artificial feature of our human condition, and indeed, almost takes on an element of need for our survivability.  But in the context of a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, procrastinating in filing for the benefit does one no good.

Meet the deadline by working on it steadily, steadfastly, and without delay.  Remember the dictum:  If you don’t file, you can’t argue anything; at least if you file on time, there is always a chance.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

OPM Disability Retirement: Delays

Often, the answer to a question posed depends upon how accurately the question is presented.  Such are the tools of the trade of an attorney, and it is often necessary to rephrase, reassemble and rearrange a question in order to suit an answer.  

In a Federal Disability Retirement case under FERS or CSRS from the Office of Personnel Management, the question posed is:  How long does the process take?  This all depends upon a number of factors — how quickly the treating doctor will respond; how long will the Agency take in completing their portion; what is the “wait time” at the Office of Personnel Management.

Unspoken within the original question, however, is how many months of delay has already occurred on the part of the potential applicant prior to coming to a point of determining that filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a necessary event.  Unfortunately, the very emergency nature of having to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS results quite often because the Federal or Postal worker has continued to delay for months and months — and sometimes years — prior to coming to a decision that filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a necessity.  

Such delays and procrastination are often part of the medical condition itself, and cannot be helped.  But during such delays, it is important to make an assessment as to whether the procrastination has a detrimental effect, or is it for positive reasons?  If it is irrefutable that one’s medical condition is progressively and irreversibly deteriorating; if delaying is simply dwindling finances needed to endure the long administrative process of waiting for an approval from the Office of Personnel Management; if putting off the inevitable is simply a result of not wanting to face the event; such reasons for delay constitute a self-defeating action.  If, on the other hand, delaying has meant securing one’s financial future, or because it has had positive psychological benefits, then that is a different matter entirely.  

To delay is not necessarily a negative decision, but each individual must bear the personal responsibility of his or her part in such an act, by making a forthright assessment of the underlying reasons and justifications.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire