Q. My mom just passed on. She was receiving a disability annuity. When we checked with OPM, we were shocked to find out they had taken all of her retirement contributions and used it for her disability payments. Is this really what happened? A. In all likelihood, yes. Annuity payments to retirees — whether regular or disability — initially come from the contributions employees made to the retirement system while they were working. Only when that money runs out does the government begin making those payments out of the retirement fund. A retiree who worked full time for an entire…
Browsing: Disability retirement
Q. What is the difference between FERS retirement and federal disability retirement? If there is a difference, can they be combined? I have seven years of service. Is it more beneficial to push until at least 10 years of employment with Veterans Affairs? I am 54 years old and sick.
Q. I was forced to take medical leave because I slipped and fell in the ice and snow. The injury caused a severe illness, and eventually my agency separated me on disability retirement. Later I was awarded Social Security Disability Insurance. They offset my disability annuity by the same amount, so I have to pay the Office of Personnel and Management back the same amount I received from SSDI. It seems like I shouldn’t have applied for SSDI if they were going to deduct the amount of the SSDI from my disability benefit. What do you think?
Q. I have been approved for FERS disability retirement but I am not receiving any checks yet. My High-3 pay is around $53,300. I only worked for 2½ years. What would my annuity payments be? I am 65 years old and on $1,100 a month of Social Security disability. How will the FERS disability affect my Social Security disability?
Q. If you opted to received FERS disability retirement instead of Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and later decided to switch, and the Department of Labor said you can work ,are you able to go back and get your FERS disability with no questions asked?
Q. If I’m offered a position at a lower grade, but the same pay through pay retention (same GS pay plan), would declining it forfeit my already filed disability retirement application? Also, position would be non-law enforcement versus my current law enforcement retirement plan, so I would be giving up my enhanced 20-year law enforcement officer annuity. According to what I’ve read, I’m not required to accept a lower grade position — even if they match the pay rate.
Q. I have a doctor who will only assist in the CSRS disability process by providing medical records. Will this alone be enough to proceed or, better yet, be successful?
Q. My husband died suddenly. He had been away from work because of an illness for three weeks. Had he lived, which we expected, he would have gone on disability like his doctor recommended. He did not apply for that as his death came so suddenly — a week after he was told this. I am receiving a CSRS survivor benefit from his pension. However, if he had received it, it would be double. If he paid in all those years (37 at the U.S. Postal Service and three in the military), shouldn’t they be paying all of it out? Do they just get to keep half of…
Q. Can I retire at 57? I’ve been a nurse aide in long-term care for 20 years. My back and body can’t take it any more.
Q. I first applied for OPM disability retirement in 2008, submitting in a statement of disability, but nothing else. An OPM time-stamped copy was sent back to me. A few years passed, and I applied for Social Security disability. I was approved in 2014. I sent my Social Security disability approval documents to OPM to complete my OPM disability and was assigned a case number. What are my chances for approval?