OPM Medical Retirement: Beyond Forms

Providing evidence and proving your case

Some of Plato’s works elucidate concerns which belie clarity of thought, where conceptual confusions become enmeshed with absurd abstractions and unnecessary complications beyond the parameters of linguistic capacity to provide technical comprehension; in a word, he was complicating matters.

The Republic embraced a bold insight into human nature and the political apparatus of power; some of his later works provide fodder for those who allege esotericism; for, even Aristotle quipped with ironic sarcasm the plenitude of conceptual confusions inherent in the system of Forms having an “objective” reality apart from the physical universe.  But even today, we must contend with forms — forms in the form of bureaucratic mandates.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who finds themselves in a state of necessity because of a medical condition, following the requirements of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is something which must be embraced.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement is not simply a matter of filling out forms, however; it is the combination of gathering sufficient evidence such that it meets the burden of proof; of coordinating the evidence with formulating persuasive argumentation such that the law supports the evidence compiled; then, to present the whole as a coherent pathway to a successful outcome — an approval of one’s Disability Retirement claim issued by OPM.

Just as within the dusty notebooks of Plato’s lectures, the linguistic concepts of Forms can be confused with the physical manifestation of appearances within the perceived world, so the Federal and Postal employee can become confounded and confused by the modern day requirement of forms within the Leviathan of a bureaucracy; but all forms required, whether the SF 2801 series for CSRS employees, the SF 3107 forms for FERS employees, and the SF 3112 series for both CSRS and FERS employees — all merely constitute the minimal requirements.

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is not merely a matter of forms; it must go beyond such standard forms; and as Plato’s Republic is not merely a form of government, but a blueprint for the elite to take power, so the proper preparation and presentation on OPM’s Disability Retirement forms must follow the dictates of totalitarianism, lest one is left in the shadows of that proverbial Cave in the allegory of appearances.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire