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Are You a Dummy? Don't Be.

Getting Fired

You're a dummy if you quit your job and think your supervisor will just write you the best Supervisor's Statement ever when you're no longer around.

You're a smarty if you sweet-talk your supervisor into firing you for a medical reason - and make sure your medical condition is listed in both the Proposal to Remove and the Notice of Removal!

Example: Linda Lemon worked at the department of agriculture. She had multiple back surgeries and needed to lie down about half the day. Her job required sitting at a desk as well as travel, so she was about to quit because she knew she wouldn't be able to do her job. Linda was a great employee, but she was a dummy!

Solution: Luckily for Linda Lemon, she didn't quit. Instead, she checked out Harvey's OPM Disability Retirement Blog the night before. She called Harvey, who advised her to get her boss to fire her - for the right reason. Linda's boss was Amanda Apple, and the two had been working together for years. Amanda knew Linda was in terrible pain and used to do great work before the surgeries. So Amanda wrote a beautiful "Proposal to To Remove" outlining how Linda Lemon couldn't do her job due to her back problem, and even showed the letter to Harvey to make sure it would help Linda get disability retirement! After taking a few months LWOP, Linda was fired on the grounds that were laid out in the proposal.

Harvey says: People who have been removed for their medical condition (as opposed to staying in their job, quitting, or being fired for another reason) are statistically much more likely to be awarded Disability Retirement.

Hiring A Lawyer

You're a dummy if you think you're an expert on getting OPM Disability Retirement and don't want to pay a lawyer to help you.

You're a smarty if you realize that Disability Retirement can end up being one of the best financial investments in your life. That's because the several thousand dollars you will pay a lawyer will net you a yearly income of roughly half your salary until age 62. Plus, you can go out and work at another job for which you are not disabled (your new job can't pay more than 79.9999% of your old job's rate of basic pay).

Example: Wilbur Wiseguy needed Disability Retirement for a progressive nerve disease. He thought, "I'm a smart cookie, I'll just read Harvey's blog and do it all myself." Wilbur did a great job getting fired, filled out all his forms, got his medical records and a statement from his doctor, and filed for Disability Retirement. But he was denied! OPM said his condition wasn't so severe that he couldn't be accommodated. OPM also told him he had the right to reconsideration.

Solution: Wilbur Wiseguy finally smartened up and got a lawyer, and lucky for him. The lawyer looked at his application and said, "That's a useless physician's statement. If we don't fix this, you won't win." Wilbur Wiseguy was confused, he thought a doctor's letter could only be written by a doctor. How could that be fixed? Well, if he was a smarty, he'd know that lawyers always have their tricks. Mr. Wiseguy should have known that his lawyer was going to sweet talk the physician and help write the letter with him, to make sure it was perfect.

But lawyers have their fees, and Wilbur was out of money. Lucky for him, there are lawyers who will take contingency fees based on a percentage of any back annuity owed them by OPM when they win, and not charge a fee up front.

Doctors and the Physician's Statement Form

You're a dummy if you think you can just ask a doctor to write a Physician's Statement without giving them any guidance on how to craft it. You're an even bigger dummy if you think you can help them craft it.

You're a smarty if you recognize there is more to a Physician's Statement than medical gobbledygook.

Example: The runaway doctor writes: "The client has hypertension with a blood pressure of 180/2,000,000 and he has run out of white blood cells." This means zilch to an OPM adjudicator. They need to know if you can take medicine to treat the condition, the reason the blood pressure will prevent you from working, and much more. The problem is that the doctor doesn't know how to help you! He doesn't know what the OPM adjudicators want to hear. How would he? He may be a great doctor, but he's definitely not a lawyer who knows his way around OPM Disability Retirement.

Solution: Get someone who has done enough cases at OPM that they know what OPM adjudicators want to hear from a doctor. Your doctor doesn't know, and neither do you, your know-it-all husband (or wife), or even less-experienced lawyers. OPM Disability Retirement is all about knowing what OPM adjudicators want to hear.

Harvey says: You want a lawyer who has done scads and scads of cases!

Articles

Don't Fear Asking Your Doctor for a Convincing Physician's Statement

We have a real problem with Physician’s Statements from doctors who are too busy to spend time writing them and unwilling to go out on a limb to say it like it really is. So you have to work around this. When it comes to doctors, you have to fi… Read More

Even if Removed for Misconduct, Agencies are REQUIRED to Fill Out Your Disability Retirement Forms

Following up on my earlier post about getting fired for misconduct: If you are fired for misconduct, that does not mean your agency can wash its hands of you and not cooperate with your claim for Disability Retirement. Your agency is still required t… Read More

Disability Retirement Legal Manual

Is it true that legally I may be able to earn more while on disability retirement than I did while working in my old government job?

ANSWER: Yes. By keeping your earnings in your new job just below the 80% ceiling and combining these earnings with your disability annuity, you can, without any penalty, earn more than you formerly did when you were healthy and employed by the government. Nor is there anything illegal or unethical about purposely keeping your earnings below the 80% ceiling and as a consequence, earning more on disability than you earned previously.

Will OPM check up on me to see if I am still disabled or if I have been restored to earning capacity? If so, how, and how often?

ANSWER: Yes, they will check up on you, but the experience of most of my clients is that they will not harass you to get you off disability retirement. This policy, by the way, is different from that of the Department of Labor, which has a reputation for unrelentingly harassing employees in an effort to get them off workers' compensation. The disability retirement law requires OPM to check on your medical condition at least once a year and also permits them to check up on you whenever they so desire. The results are uneven and sporadic. Some employees are contacted within a few months of going on disability retirement while others are not contacted for years. Although OPM has the power to send annuitants to government-appointed physicians, it usually requires you to have your own physician answer a series of questions, which may be the same or similar to those previously asked on the "Physician's Statement." As to monitoring for restoration of earning capacity, that is done on an annual basis through a questionnaire, and you may, in addition, be required to provide copies of your tax returns.

If I lose my disability annuity by earning too much, can I ever get it back?

ANSWER: Yes. Although you will lose your disability retirement annuity if you are "restored to earning capacity," you may reapply. On reapplication, you will have to demonstrate not only that your earnings have diminished for an entire calendar year below the 80% ceiling, but also that you are still disabled from your old government job (and not some other job) by the same disability (and not some other disability) that disabled you before. This can be very tricky. The best advice: make sure that you keep your earnings under the 80% ceiling.

Is there an earnings limitation in that other job?

ANSWER: Yes. The law allows you to collect your full disability retirement annuity so long as you are not "restored to earning capacity." You are considered "restored to earning capacity" if in any calendar year your earnings from wages, self-employment, or both (but not passive investments) reaches or exceeds 80% of the current rate of basic pay of the position you occupied immediately before retirement. The rule is very strictly construed and you will be stripped of your annuity even if you exceed the 80% ceiling by even a single penny. If you think that you may fall within the scope of this rule, be very sure to find out precisely how it is applied by OPM. For instance, OPM may include in its definition of income, earnings that IRS may exclude from its definition of income.

If you are "restored to earning capacity," you will lose your entire disability retirement annuity, not just some percentage of it. Loss of your annuity will also mean loss of other benefits, including loss of your group health insurance, which will always be more favorable than the individual conversion policy to which you may thereafter be entitled. Persons over 60 years of age are exempt from this 80% earnings limitation.

10 Questions People Always Ask Me About Disability Retirement