Disability Retirement for Federal Government Employees: Respites

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the Office of Personnel Management — if one is a current employee of one’s agency or the U.S. Postal Service or, if separated but it has been less than thirty one (31) days since the separation, then the application for Federal Disability Retirement benefits must be processed through one’s agency; if, on the other hand, you have been separated for more than 31 days, then you must file the application for Federal Disability Retirement benefits directly to the OPM intake office in Boyers, Pennsylvania, which will then be processed and forwarded to the main U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C. — is a process which one should expect will require considerable energy, involving one’s emotional physical, and mental fortitude.  

Filing for the benefit and involving one’s self in the process of the administrative procedure, is rarely — if ever — merely a matter of “filling out forms“.  Yes, there are Standard Forms to be completed (the SF 3107 series for FERS employees; for CSRS employees, SF 2801 series; and the SF 3112 series for both FERS and CSRS employees) — but it is the “connecting of dots” between preparing one’s narrative in the Applicant’s Statement of Disability, the gathering of the medical documentation sufficient to meet the burden of proof of “preponderance of the evidence”, and all of the attendant actions which accompany the creation of the nexus between one’s medical condition and the positional requirements of one’s duties — all of the cumulative aggregation taken as a whole, constitute an imposing, formidable process.  

Fortunately, the Holidays, the weekends, etc., provide a brief respite from such challenges.  But the problem with such periodic and temporary respites, are that they merely serve to remind us that the hurdle still exists, and the process is still to be encountered, and the procrastination of the inevitable must be confronted at some point; and that, in and of itself, is an exhausting thought.  Medical Disability Retirement from OPM is precisely there is provide a long-lasting respite. Delaying by periodic respites only prolongs the time when the true respite, of meaningful duration, may be embraced.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Disability Retirement Benefits for Federal & Postal Employees: Point of Necessity

Just as one should purchase insurance based upon the worst-case scenario, so one should generally prepare for anything in life with unexpected consequences in mind.  This is similar to the proper approach in preparing, formulating, deciding, and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS & CSRS.  People will often call an attorney only when he or she “thought it necessary”.  But who determined the point of necessity?  If the individual who determines the point of necessity is the same person who finds him or herself at the point of necessity, then it is often too little too late. 

Can most cases be reversed and won even after an initial denial?  Yes.  Can most cases be reversed and won even after a second denial at the Reconsideration Stage?  Yes.  Can most cases be reversed and won even after an initial denial, a denial at the Reconsideration Stage, then an adverse Initial Decision by an Administrative Judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board?  Perhaps.  How about thereafter?  You are then asking if, after all of the facts have been put forth, after all of the stages of consideration by the administrative process of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether an error in the application of the law can be found.  Yes, at each state of the process, a Federal Disability Retirement application can be won; however, remember the the “point of necessity” is not best determined by the one who thinks it is finally necessary; it is often best determined by an experienced OPM Disability attorney.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire