During the process of preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, the question is sometimes asked as to whether a Federal or Postal employee who is filing, or has filed, can either (a) continue to work in the Federal or Postal job he or she is occupying, or (b) work at another, private-sector job, during the process.
Because Federal Disability Retirement is not a disability annuity based upon “total disability” (unlike Social Security Disability), but in fact encourages Federal and Postal workers to remain productive in the workforce, the fact of continuation of work during the process should not generally have an impact upon a decision rendered by the Office of Personnel Management.
The key, operative word, of course, is “should”. The Office of Personnel Management will sometimes bring the issue up, and make certain assumptions — as to the similarity between positional duties of one’s Federal/Postal position and the private sector job, or that the Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service has “accommodated” the Federal or Postal worker, and therefore that is the reason why continuation in the position has been possible.
Such assumptions obviously need to be addressed, but they are often based upon a presumption founded in error — for, “light duty” or “temporary” duties do not constitute a legally viable “accommodation”, but that is something which OPM has a difficult time understanding. The fact that the Federal Agency which makes the legal determination on the viability of a Federal Disability Retirement application, has a lack of understanding of “the law” governing the legal criteria, is rather astounding, but true.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Clarifications of Laws or Rules | Tagged: attorney representing federal workers for disability throughout the united states, civil service disability, essential elements of jobs, Federal Disability, federal disability law blog, federal disability retirement, FERS disability retirement, financial survival while waiting for opm disability decision, formal postal worker working part-time while on opm disability, how to survive the opm disability retirement process, how to survive while waiting for opm disabililty retirement, if it's a good idea to work while waiting for disabililty retirement under fers, in part-time work and workers comp while waiting for a decision from opm, legal services for federal and postal workers all across america, light duty and accommodation of federal agencies, llight duty status usps, OPM disability application tips and strategies, OPM disability retirement, owcp disability retirement, post office light duty, Postal disability, postal service disability retirement, representing federal employees in and outside the country, the employing agency's understanding of legal accommodation and light duty, the federal agency is not always right about the viability of an opm diability claim, USPS Disability, waiting for an answer from the opm about disability, working while in federal disability retirement | Leave a comment »
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