During the “waiting time” of the lengthy process in preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is important to begin the secondary process of preparing for the next “phase” of one’s life.
Many Federal and Postal workers unfortunately view the waiting period — that period when one’s Federal Disability Retirement application has been filed, and is waiting for a determination by a Case worker at the Office of Personnel Management — as a time where everything is on “hold” because the lack of a determinative decision results in a paralysis of an ability to plan for the future. However, submission to such paralysis would be a mistake, and a misuse of the most valuable resource which one has: time. For, ultimately, one must make future plans based upon an assumption that one’s Federal Disability Retirement application will be approved.
This assumption is based upon the factual underpinnings of the filing of the Federal Disability Retirement application itself: it was filed with the support of a doctor; the Federal or Postal worker is unable to continue in his or her job; the medical condition is expected to last a minimum of 12 months. If all three of these basic criteria are met, then one must proceed with the assumption that one’s Federal Disability Retirement application will ultimately be approved.
Based upon the foregoing, the time of waiting should be spent — not in anxious despair and despondency because of the wait — but rather, in preparing for the future. To allow for those things which one has no control over to control one’s life would be a foolish endeavor. OPM will ultimately make a decision, and whether at the First Stage of the Process, the Reconsideration Stage, or before an Administrative Judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board, one should be preparing for the next phase of one’s life.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: considerations about federal disability retirement, control over your life: federal employees after a serious accident, CSRS disability attorney, disability retirement for civilian federal employees, endless waiting for the opm to process disability application, federal disability retirement application and process, FERS Disability Application, fers disability retirement lawyers, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, looking ahead to your future after opm disability approval, mapping your future during the opm disability retirement waiting period, medical disability lawyers opm, opm disability and planning for the future, patience while waiting the opm to process disability approval, predicting possible future outcomes in a federal disability case, preparing yourself for a future disability claim with your federal employer, preparing yourself for life after fers disability retirement, questions about your future as a us government employee, taking charge of your future after fers disability, the federal deficit and the future of disabled federal employees, the future of the injured federal worker, thinking process, us post office disabilty, USPS disability retirement, usps fers retirement, your federal disability application and the opm case worker, your federal employment and your future health | Leave a comment »