Types of reconsideration decisions denying an applicant his or her Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS can and do span the entire spectrum, depending upon the OPM representative who writes up the decision: from half a page (barely giving a passing, respectful review to a packet which took multiple hours to put together) to over 3 pages long (in the “Discussion Section”); from merely listing general principles of law and generalized, template-like denials to apparent detailed (but very selective) references to various medical reports submitted by the applicant as part of the disability retirement packet — they all boil down to the same thing: a denial at the initial application stage.
Often, an initial reaction to the denial encompasses a myriad of responses, ranging from incredulity, to resignation, to anger, to indignation. Set aside the emotionalism. Further, there is often the reaction to that “one piece” of medical information which the applicant believes should have turned that “denial” into an “approval” — that “one piece” of medical note, statement, sentence, or paragraph which the OPM representative conveniently disregarded or chose not to reference. Don’t ruminate over it. It may well be that it was deliberately disregarded; it may even have been overlooked. More than likely, the OPM representative was fully aware of it, but decided to selectively choose his or her basis as the more “important” and “substantive” evidence, forming the core rationale of the denial. Don’t waste time. More work is needed — both medical as well as legal.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Application, Appeals, and Other Medical Documentation Submitted To the OPM, OPM Disability Actors - The OPM Representatives, OPM Disability Process - 2nd Stage: OPM Reconsideration Stage, When the OPM Application Is Denied | Tagged: a rational response to an unreasonable letter of denial opm benefits, An employee appealing OPM's denial, attorney to help a usps employee get opm disability, before you write your reconsideration argument to the opm, bring up csrs federal disability retirement, controlling anger and disappointment after opm disability denial, deficiencies of an OPM disability denial, disability retirement benefits under fers, discussion section in the opm denial letter, examining the basis for the denial, federal employee disability benefits, federal employee medical retirement, federal employee's indignation after denial of medical disability, federal medical retirement FERS disability, federal workers winning disability benefits even after first denial, FERS disability retirement, fers disability retirement law firm, FERS medical retirement, Filing the Request for Reconsideration after first OPM denial, help for rural carriers seeking disability retirement, illogical reasons used by the opm to deny fers disability retirement, medical reports in the OPM disability retirement application, misstatements as basis for denial, nationwide representation of federal employees, non industrial disability for federal employees, opm decision denying disability benefits, opm denial letter templates and the essence of the denial, opm disability cases, OPM disability retirement, opm disability retirement representation in utah, OPM Disability Specialist, OPM Reconsideration Stage, OPM Representative, OPM's methodology, postal disability for supervisors, Postal Service disability, representing federal employees from any us government agency, representing federal employees in and outside the country, reversing the course of an opm disability denial, setting aside emotionalism after the opm denial of disability benefits, the dreaded denial letter, the federal disability denial letter and the federal employee's reactions, the first opm denial of federal employee medical retirement, the medical condition in fers disability retirement, the opm representative's first-level decision-making process, types of opm disability denial letters, USPS disability retirement, usps medical retirement, washington dc fers disability retirement, when the opm denial for disability letter is just another opm template, when the opm misuses the medical information you submitted, working around an OPM application for disability denial | Leave a comment »
OPM Disability Retirement: Service Deficiency & Medical Condition
The Office of Personnel Management will often use as a criteria of denial the argument/basis that despite the fact that an individual may have a medical condition such that the medical documentation states that the Federal or Postal worker can no longer perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, nevertheless, there has not been a showing that a “service deficiency” has occurred. Often, agencies systematically write up performance appraisals without much thought or consideration; more often, Federal and Postal workers quietly suffer through his or her medical condition, and strive each day to meet the requirements of their duties.
Whatever the reason for the lack of attention or perception on the part of the supervisor or the agency to recognize that the Federal or Postal worker has not been able to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, such basis for a denial of a disability retirement application by the Office of Personnel Management is not a legitimate one, because existence of a “service deficiency” is not the whole story: if it is found that retention in the job is “inconsistent” with the type of medical condition the Federal or Postal Worker has, then such a finding would “trump” the lack of any service deficiency. That is not something, however, that the Office of Personnel Management is likely to tell you as they deny your disability retirement application.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors - The Agency, OPM Disability Actors - The Supervisor, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | Tagged: adverse agency reaction, agency's extraordinary top assessment in fers disability applications, agency's influence in disability retirement, assessment for postal disability retirement from supervisor, criteria of denial instead of criteria of disability in opm disability, disability retirement csrs, disability retirement usps non job related, disability retirement workers compensation, essential elements of jobs not so essential according to evaluation, federal disability facts, federal disability law firm, federal medical retirement, fers disability application supervisor comments, FERS disability attorney, fers disability attorney in mississippi, fers disability benefits, government postal disability, injured postal workers and their miraculous job evaluations, law firm for federal disability retirement, medical disability lawyers opm, opm disability and the supervisor who says everything's fine, opm disability for federal employees in louisiana, opm disability for federal workers in alabama, opm disability retirement representation in utah, opm supervisor statement disability retirement, opm's excuses to deny your federal disability retirement, owcp disability retirement really is usually meant "opm disability retirement", owcp medical retirement, postal service disability retirement, postal service medical retirement, representing federal employees from any us government agency, representing federal employees in and outside the country, representing us government disability employees anywhere, the incapacitated federal employee without service deficiency, USPS disability retirement benefits, washington state federal opm disability retirement, when supervisors don't notice any medical condition in federal worker, when the agency claims no service deficiency in opm application, when there is no accommodation because there is no job deficiency, when top performance hurts the chances of getting fers disability, when work performance evaluations are near too perfect, Workers Comp disability, workers comp fers retirement, your supervisor and federal disability retirement | Leave a comment »