Federal Disability Retirement Attorney Chris Attig discusses what conditions you should include on your application for FERS/CSRS disability retirement.

The subject of today’s post is whether obesity, or morbid obesity, might qualify you for FERS or CSRS Disability retirement through OPM.

Obesity is a well-recognized medical condition.  Unfortunately, too many  MSPB judges view this condition as one that is the “fault” of the person with obesity.   Medical experts have identified hundreds of medical conditions, or physical or genetic factors, which can cause obesity, including: reduced metabolic rates, pituitary gland disease, pituitary gland tumors, underactive thyroid, Prader-Willi syndrome, Stein-Leventhal syndrome, Frohlich [...]

If someone told you that this was their list of medical conditions what would you think, as a layperson, of their chances for getting  federal disability retirement:

Diabetes, congestive heart failure, colorectal cancer, depression, anxiety, and sleep disorder, breathing problems due to severe obesity, unable to climb stairs, unable to walk more than 100 feet without needing to rest, no bowel control due to radiation treatment for the colorectal cancer, three heart attacks, and has been hospitalized seven times for congestive [...]

It often happens that Federal employees and postal workers applying for federal disability retirement will mention only their most severe condition to OPM in the application process.

While the condition that forms the basis of a Federal employees application for federal disability retirement may be the most severe, and may in its own right support federal disability retirement benefits, it is always better to provide to OPM, in the application process, evidence of any medical condition which affects the federal employee or postal workers [...]

The title of this post has been appearing in recent emails and contacts to our Firm with increasing frequency. In the opinion of this author, it is the wrong question to be asking.

The reason I say this is the wrong question is that the Federal employee does not want to go out and find some random doctor who will support their claim that they are unable to work and therefore eligible for federal  disability retirement. On the other [...]

If you suffer from work-related stress, can you claim disability retirement from OPM?

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has repeatedly held that  job-related stress resulting in physical or mental ailments that prevent an employee from performing the duties required in a position can warrant the granting of disability retirement.  In fact, the cause of a medical condition is not relevant in the determination of whether an employee is eligible for disability retirement.  In a 2001 case, the  MSPB rejected the notion that the appellant was ineligible for [...]