In filing a Federal Disability Retirement application with the Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, one must file within one (1) year of being “separated from service”. That is what is often referred to as the “statute of limitations” — a limit placed upon the ability of a Federal or Postal worker to file for a claim, based upon pragmatic policies of making sure that a claim is “recent” enough to allow for evidence which is neither stale nor outdated.
There is sometimes a level of confusion as to what it means to be “separated from service”, and it often appears that such confusion arises from mixing issues with other administrative claims. Thus, OWCP/FECA has its own sets of rules; Social Security has its own set of rules, etc. For Federal Disability Retirement applications under FERS or CSRS from the Office of Personnel Management, to be “separated from service” and thus to trigger the 1-year timeframe, means that a Federal or Postal worker is terminated, taken off the rolls, and an SF 50 and PS Form 50 needs to be issued showing that a person has been effectively separated from Federal Service.
For Postal Workers, a good indication that this action has been effectuated is when one stops received the “0”-balance paystubs. Further, one must remember that, once separated from the Agency, after 31 days or more of such separation, any Federal Disability Retirement application must be filed directly with the Office of Personnel Management. Filing with the Agency after the 31 day period and waiting for them to process the case, and relying upon them to forward it to OPM may result in a case simply sitting on someone’s desk…until the year has run out.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Pre-Application Considerations | Tagged: 1-year OPM disability rule, a word of warning to federal workers with workers comp and disability issues, being on owcp for one year now, beware of opm's one year deadline for disability filing, confusion among postal workers about the opm statue of limitations, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, don't forget the 12 months statute of limitations in usps medical retirement, federal disability lawyer, federal disability retirement blog, federal employment -- one small warning about using donated leave, FERS disability retirement, former federal employees running out of time to file for disability, important warning for disabled postal workers, lawyer role in federal disability cases, losing your right -- forever -- to file for usps disability retirement, making sure you don't miss the one-year time limit, medical conditions and the one-year opm legal requirement, one warning about the so-called usps national reassessment program, one year separated from service opm rule, One-Year Statutory Timeframe, OPM disability retirement, postal service disability retirement, pragmatic reasons for one-year statute of limitations, statutory criteria for eligibility for disability, statutory requirements in OPM disability law, usps disability blog, USPS disability retirement, warning to ill postal workers being separated from service | Leave a comment »