Posted: 10/17/2006 - EMPLOYEES ON OWCP, BEWARE OPM'S 1 YEAR FILING DEADLINE
Summary:
Disabled Employees Separated From Federal Service, Should Immediately Apply For Disability Retirement Even If Still Receiving OWCP Benefits.
By Harvey Friedman, Attorney at Law, Washington, D.C
OPM has a one-year deadline from the date you are separated from the Federal government, within which to apply for disability retirement, not a one-year deadline from the date OWCP benefits end.
A client collecting OWCP benefits was fired from her Federal job because she was too disabled to return to work (firing for long-term disability is legal!). She continued to receive OWCP benefits after being fired.
Given the endless hassles from the Department of Labor (OWCP), trying to shake her off her OWCP benefits, she decided to apply for and switch to OPM disability retirement.
She knew that OPM had a one-year filing deadline, but she thought that it was one year from the date her OWCP benefits terminated, not one year from the date she had been removed from her job. Since she was still on OWCP, she didn't realize that the time limit was running.
She was wrong and she almost missed the boat.
By chance, she walked into my office, just as she was nearing the one-year anniversary of her separation from her Federal employment.
We immediately filed for disability retirement, beating the OPM deadline and happily won.
She then switched from OWCP to disability retirement, since she couldn't collect from both at the same time.
She continues to collect disability retirement. While it pays her less, she is no longer hassled by OWCP.
The Lesson Is This: Employees who are likely to suffer long-term disability and who are fired or resign from Federal service should immediately apply for OPM disability retirement even if they are collecting OWCP benefits.
This preserves their right to disability retirement in the event, that after their one-year separation anniversary, they are stripped of their OWCP benefits or decide to give them up.
While you can't collect both OWCP and disability retirement simultaneously, you can qualify for them simultaneously and later elect one over the other.
If you don't apply for OPM disability retirement benefits within the one-year time limit, you lose that option forever.
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