Early Retirement for Injured Federal Employees
One may choose OWCP benefits because, financially, it pays more (75% non-taxed for an individual with dependents; 66 2/3% for a single individual) than a Federal Disability Retirement annuity. It is a pragmatic paradigm to rely upon for the […]
In attempting to decide to file for Federal Disability Retirement Benefits, it is often the case that Social Security disability benefits must be considered (not just “considered”, obviously, for FERS employees, because it is a […]
Federal Agencies often act like little fiefdoms. This is not necessarily a negative thing; each agency is an independent entity, and each has a province of responsibilities which it must carry out and execute according to the statutory mandate provided […]
I still get calls by people who state that (A) they are waiting for a year before they are going to file for FERS or CSRS disability retirement, (B) It hasn’t been a year since they have been on LWOP, but it almost will be, or (C) They are […]
Under the rules concerning FERS disability retirement applications, one must file for Social Security Disability. As most people already know, there is an interaction/ offset between Social Security Disability benefits and FERS disability benefits, if both are approved (100% offset in the first year of annuity, 60% offset […]
Agencies are “like” people; they are “organic” organizations (a redundancy?), and as a corporate-like entity, they respond and react as people do: cerebrally, emotionally, reactively, angrily, etc. If one views an agency in this way — treating the entity as one would a person — then you […]
A more extensive article on the recent case of Reilly v. OPM has already appeared in FedSmith.com, because it is an important step forward in Federal Disability Retirement Law. Decided July 15, 2009 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit […]
It is, indeed, frustrating when a governmental agency makes life-impacting decisions which seem to be spurious and capricious. A review of a disability retirement application by the Office of Personnel Management is supposed to be thorough […]
Denials received from the Office of Personnel Management are particularly difficult news to digest. It is not so much that the denial itself obviously represents “bad news” (that is difficult enough), but for the disability retirement […]
My approach to Federal Disability Retirement law is that there are very few, if any, mistakes made by the applicant which cannot be corrected, amended, or explained, especially where the essential ingredients of a “good” case are in existence: a supportive doctor; a position/duties which are […]