Last Updated on March 16, 2013
There are times when “waiting for a season” makes sense — as in entering a marriage relationship prior to a long engagement period for purposes of getting to better know the other person. Or, in a FERS or CSRS Disability Retirement application, waiting as the doctor wants to establish more evidence, send the patient for a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE , or to see what his or her colleague or referral “specialist” has to say before rendering an opinion — these are all valid reasons to wait before formulating and finalizing a Federal Disability Retirement application from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
There are, of course, countervailing reasons which “balance out” such sensible bases for waiting — economic rationale; the need to file in a timely manner if the Statute of Limitations is running and the 1-year mark is quickly approaching; threats by an agency to remove the Federal or Postal employee and leaving him or her with no income, no medical insurance, and little leeway for options other than to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from OPM; but such balancing must be done with an intelligent approach, as timing at the outset in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, is best accomplished in order to preclude, as much as possible, the delay of time at the “back-end” of a case, by having it summarily denied at the First Stage of the process.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire