The disparate nature of each Federal program, with little to no intersecting coordination amongst them (with the exception of SSDI and FERS Disability Retirement benefits in the coordination of payments upon approval of each) betrays the unplanned, thoughtless creation of each program, as well as a sense that each agency wants to maintain its feudal control and assertion of independent power.
That perhaps explains, in part, why each program ignores the extent of persuasive authority the approval of another program should logically have, upon an approval and acceptance by the “other” program. Does it make sense that being granted “unemployability” status under the Department of Veterans Affairs ascription of percentage disability ratings would only have a nominal impact upon a FERS Disability Retirement application? Or that an SSDI approval would have, at best, a persuasive effect upon a FERS Disability Retirement?
It is somewhat more understandable that a case accepted by OWCP/Department of Labor would have minimal impact upon a FERS or CSRS Disability Retirement application, precisely because the former is set up as a program of rehabilitation in an effort to return the Federal or Postal employee back to his or her job.
The only true “coordination” of benefits occurs between SSDI and FERS — and that, only if both are approved, and payments are received concurrently; but even then, there are often overpayment problems, lack of the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing, etc.
Thus Coordination and intersection between departments, agencies and various programs rarely occurs. Agencies tend to want to remain independent.
Such lack of coordination, however, does not mean that the FERS or CSRS Federal or Postal employee should not force a legal argument upon OPM when a significant finding is made by another agency or program. For, in the end, it may not be the U.S. Office of Personnel Management which listens, but an administrative judge at the MSPB, or a 3-judge panel on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals; in which case, a precedent will have been set, for all to (hopefully) follow.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tagged: attorney representing federal employees, civil service retirement system for injured workers, compiling additional supporting documentation, different disability standards among different us government programs, disability retirement for federal employees, documentation for federal medical retirement, each disability program has different eligibility requirement, federal disability lawyer, federal employee medical disability, FERS Disability, fers disability and communication issues among federal agencies, filing for OPM disability retirement, gathering your disability claim documents, getting relevant medical documentation key in securing opm disability, guidelines for a successful opm disability application, how to prove disability in fers?, how to prove your disability with the federal government employee?, intersecting processes among several medical compensation programs available to federal employees, issues intersecting with federal disability retirement, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, legal services for federal and postal workers all across america, limits and boundaries of each federal disability compensation program, medical disability through federal job, nationwide representation of federal employees, occupational rehabilitation programs and us government disability retirement, opm supportive medical documentation, opm's independence from other government agencies, owcp disability retirement, OWCP-accepted medical conditions, preponderance of the evidence documents, resources for injured federal workers, service-connected disability compensation and a new federal job, social security disability approvals and their impact fers disability claims, studying your opm claim and using appropriate legal arguments, the independence of the opm to approve medical retirement claims, the influence that other disability programs have on opm disability retirement eligibility, the opm must evaluate medical documentation, the persuasive authority that other disability or medical compensation programs should have on opm disability retirement, the relevant medical information in opm disability, using approvals from other disability systems to support your opm claim, using medical documentation from the owcp, va disability ratings and the us postal service, va ratings determinations on the civilian federal worker, what documents should I turn over opm for my disability claim?, what is the impact of a ssdi disability claim on a fers application for disability retirement?, what other tools I can use to prove federal disability retirement eligibility? | Leave a comment »
Federal Disability Retirement: Formulating an Effective SF 3112A
The “heart of it all” is… The medical report will provide the substantive basis; a supervisor’s statement may or may not be helpful or useful at all; legal arguments will certainly place the viability of the application for Federal Disability Retirement into its proper context and arguments which touch upon the legal basis will inevitably have their weight, impact and effect upon whether one has met by a preponderance of the evidence the legal criteria required to be eligible and entitled. All of that aside, the SF 3112A — the Applicant’s Statement of Disability — is where the heart of the matter resides in preparing, formulating, and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS.
If a Federal or Postal employee is unsure of what to state, how to state it, or how much to reveal and state, that becomes a problem. For, ultimately, the proper balance must be stricken — between that which is relevant as opposed to superfluous; between that which is substantive as opposed to self-defeating; and between that which is informational, as opposed to compelling. Formulation takes thought and reflection. Yes, the SF 3112A — the Applicant’s Statement of Disability — is the heart of it all.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Application - SF 3112A Applicant's Statement of Disability for CSRS and FERS | Tagged: an essential tip for 3112a filling: keep in mind the requirements, attorney's legal assistance during the 3112a filling out, beware of the applicant's statement of disability, federal disability law and legal argumentation, fers disability application supervisor comments, finding the right balance in the opm disability applicant's statements, focusing on the narrative of the opm disability applicant, formulating a fers disability claims takes a big deal of effort and dedication, heart and soul of a federal employee disability application, How to write a SF 3112A Applicant's Statement of Disability, importance of using legal argumentation in your fers disability claim, legal arguments in the federal disability application, maintaining a fine balance in your statements in the applicant's statements, medical report from treating physicians for fers disability claim, medical reports in the OPM disability retirement application, narrative medical reports used in the federal disability retirement process, objectivity and legal arguments in a fers disability claim, opm disability statements made by applicant, postal supervisors and managers, SF 3112A Applicant's Statement of Disability for CSRS, SF 3112A Applicant's Statement of Disability for FERS, soundness of legal arguments used in administrative law, striving for a fair balance in sf 3112a the applicant's statements, studying your opm claim and using appropriate legal arguments, telling the medical story in the applicant's statement of disability, the applicant's control of the opm disability application and process, the applicant's medical narrative report, the best sample of a 3112a -- on that meets the basic requirements of eligibility, the limited importance of the supervisor's statements in the opm disability process, the limited power of a supervisor in the fers disability retirement process, the most important form in the federal disability retirement package: sf 3112a, the opm disability retirement applicant's errors, the supervisor's opinions during the federal disability process, tips for unrepresented opm disability applicants, what the applicant can control in the fers disability package, why the applicant's statements is such an important document in a fers disability claim | Leave a comment »