FERS Disability: owcp claim status and plan b

How much OPM Disability Retirement Pays?

February 15, 2018

“What will the benefit pay?” That is often the primary concern of a Federal or Postal employee who must consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and it is certainly a valid first question. The greater concern that cannot be overlooked, however, is the one that involves calculating the cost of NOT filing. In the end, those Federal and Postal employees who must consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits […]

Attorney Representation for OPM Disability Claims: Tone and tenor

January 23, 2018

In music as well as in grammar, the first word remains somewhat constant, in that it refers to the sound itself – how it sounds, the decibel level, the texture and coherence, etc. Between the two, it is the tenor that alters, for in music, it refers to the male voice intermediate between the bass and the alto, while in grammar it is the content and substance of that which is said. […]

Medical Annuity after a Disability in the Federal Workplace: Formulaic writings

September 22, 2017

It is both of predictability and boredom that we seek when enjoying such genres of form and content – of the “formula” in a who-dunit, or a love story that brings together two unlikely individuals in their awkwardness and geekiness, but somehow overcomes the considerable odds and obstacles placed in their way (and we don’t ask, in a 2-hours snippet, how can so much happen to two people when not even a smidgeon of such events were faced in our entire lifetimes?) and ending with an orchestral crescendo […]

Federal Government Disability Retirement: The Best of Mediocrity

March 11, 2016

There is an overriding principle that, where excellence is sought, higher expectations are exceeded. Acceptance of a given human condition and resignation to that which is less than the best, is to embrace the heart of banality and to reject that august status reserved for the human species, of being above the animals and just below the angels. There is a syndrome for that; of thinking and believing that one’s situation is all that one can hope for, and this resignation to life’s circumstances occurs when mediocrity becomes the meddlesome cousin to dashed hopes and dreams, […]

OPM Disability Retirement: The idealist, the skeptic and the cynic

December 1, 2015

The idealist possesses the dreams of hope and promise; the skeptic, the singe of hurt enough to dampen the spirit; and the cynic, well, he is the grumpy old man who has seen it all, been battered about by the reality of experiential confrontations where tales make the sweat pour from salted wounds too hurtful for words to embrace. Do they represent a tripartite spectrum of thoughts, feelings and motives, or merely unconnected differences demarcated by time, encounters and length of procrastinated envy? Do we all begin with the zeal of idealism, pass through the comfort of skepticism, then end up bedridden in the cocoon of cynicism? […]

Early Retirement from Federal Job due to Disabilities: Setting up the Contingency for Failure

November 11, 2015

We all engage in it, at times; and like the vertical clearance events, like the high jump, the measurement of the horizontal bar can make a difference by fractions of inches or centimeters, and where we place the bar will determine the outcome of failure or success. “If X, then Y,” we whisper to ourselves daily; “If I am able to get through this day, then it shows that I am better, and…” But medical conditions, especially, have an unique characteristic of skewing and distorting the predictable outcome; and, further, when human desire, unfettered by comparative milestones used as “reality checks” […]

Federal Disability Retirement: How Long Can Negation Define Living?

October 16, 2015

The tipping point where negation of living constitutes greater time spent than affirmative enjoyment of the activity engaged, is determined by individual choices and preferences. Some individuals retain a higher threshold for pain, discomfort, and capacity to endure; and the fact that an MRI reveals a degenerative or decaying physical attribute does not necessarily correlate with the capability to ignore or otherwise minimize the magnitude of pain. […]