OPM Disability Retirement: The Time to Make the Decision (Part 2)

Last Updated on January 8, 2010

The medical condition known as “Fibromyalgia” is analogous to the manner in which Federal and Postal employees approach the decision-making process in filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS & CSRS.  Let me explain:  Fibromyalgia, as the Office of Personnel Management often likes to characterize, often manifests itself with chronic and diffuse pain which “waxes and wanes” — meaning, in simple terms, that there are good days and bad days; days when the pain is unbearable, excruciating and debilitating; and days when one can “manage” the extent of the pain and mental dysfunction and confusion. With that context, the Office of Personnel Management often tries to argue that it is not “so bad” as to qualify for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS & CSRS. 

By analogy, people with all sorts of medical conditions — from physically debilitating neck and back pain; from Orthopaedic injuries, arthritis, chronic pain, visual impairment, etc.; to psychiatric disabilities of Major Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD — some days, one can seem to manage the disability; on other days, one cannot get through the day, let alone perform the essential elements of one’s job.  But deep down, one knows that one cannot continue forever on the same course.  To continue is to slowly wither away by a thousand cuts, one cut at a time, one cut per day.  And so, just as the Office of Personnel Management is plainly wrong (for Fibromyalgia is a chronic and debilitating medical condition which clearly qualifies for disability retirement), so the person who procrastinates in making the decision to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS & CSRS is simply waiting for the inevitable.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

0 thoughts on “OPM Disability Retirement: The Time to Make the Decision (Part 2)”

  1. I called OPM today regarding my disability claim. They told me that it had been finalzined and a letter was mailed that would explain the breakdown. Could this mean that the claim was approve? She would not get more specific. I receive an annuity now and filed for disability after I retired. There was no regular early out authroity when I retired but they allowed me to take an early out based on my medical condition.

  2. I am suffering from pateller tendonitis(arthritis)in both kness, my job as a mail automation clerk requires me to stand for long periods of time. CAN YOU PLEASE SEND ME INFORMATION ON APPLYING FOR DISABLE RETIREMENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

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