Q&A - Your rights to Federal Disability Retirement - YouTube

Hey everyone, my name is Bo Harris and I'm the President here at Harris Federal Employee Law Firm.

It's our goal as a company to provide as much information as possible to Federal employees

and also represent them so they get the benefits that they deserve.

Thanks for  being here for this video today it's a Q&A video  

and it comes from a recent webinar that we did called

Your rights to Federal Disability Retirement 

We had a ton of questions come up  through that webinar from the participants that  

were there and so the goal of this video is is  to distill those questions and provide answers  

on a pretty complex topic for federal employees  but before we jump into the video if you would  

could you please like our video and also subscribe  to our channel so we can bring more videos to you  

and more videos to more Federal employees.

Let's jump in!

Our first question is "If I apply for Federal Disability Retirement and I get terminated before my retirement is resolved

am I still able to apply for Disability Retirement?

Yes! You would still be able to apply for disability retirement  

because you're within one year of the day of  your separation. This is an extremely strict deadline.  

You must apply for Federal Disability Retirement within one year of your date of separation.

So, if you are going to apply just really be  aware of what that date is and make sure that  

you have a timely application filed within that  one year.

Should I begin the Federal Disability Retirement application process

with a request for reasonable accommodation or an FMLA request?

The Office of Personal Management does require that you go through a reasonable accommodation  

process and we are happy to help our clients do that as it pertains to Federal Disability Retirement.

However OPM doesn't require  that you go through an FMLA process

but you might want to if it might potentially help your claim. if  you have questions about this still because i know  

If you have questions about this still, because I know it's confusing,

Call our office and we can help you walk through it and find the right choice for you!

Does a Federal employee continue to accrue  years of service while waiting Disability Retirement approval ?

So the simple answer is if you're still working, yes, you're going to  

continue to accrue additional years of service  towards your retirement.

One of the scenarios that might come up is if you're on LWOP (leave without pay status)

You technically would not continue to accrue years of service  while you're on l wap but it can be credited back  

to your your retirement earnings once you're  approved for Federal Disability Retirement  

The next question is about Workers Compensation. 

Will my years on OWCP Federal Workers Compensation  

prior to receiving Federal Disability  Retirement, count as credible years of service? 

Yes and once you're approved for Federal  Disability Retirement and switch over to it  

all the years that you were on  Federal Workers Compensation  

will actually count retroactively  back as credible years of service  

and the last question that we're going to cover is

Does applying for Social Security Disability play a role

in the determination  of my Federal Disability Retirement ?

To apply for Federal Disability Retirement  you're going to have to also apply for

Social Security Disability. That's a given.

You're not required to be approved for Social Security Disability

At the end of the day you really just  have to show a receipt that you have applied and

made that application.

I hope you enjoyed  today's video and I hope it sheds some light  

on some of the questions that Federal employees have about the topic of Federal Disability Retirement

Please feel free to share it with  any co-worker or any person that you know  

that might benefit from it. Also please check  out the description below it's got a link to  

more resources on our website that go  to even more depth about this particular topic.

Thanks for being here and thanks for  watching look forward to seeing you next time!