Last Updated on September 4, 2009 by Federal Disability Lawyer
It is important to understand that the “process” of filing for Federal Disability Retirement, when it comes to the Second, or “Reconsideration” Stage, encompasses two factual prisms: (1) The application has now been denied (obviously, and for whatever reason — most likely because of “insufficient medical evidence”) and (2) it is the stage in the process prior to an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
This dual prism of the stage, while self-evident, is important to keep in mind, because it requires a duality of duties: A. It requires (for the Disability Retirement Applicant) a duty to show something beyond what has already been shown, while B. It requires the Office of Personnel Management to be careful in this “process” of review, because if OPM makes a mistake at this stage, then the likelihood is great that they will be required to expend their limited resources to defend a disability retirement case before an Administrative Judge, and if it becomes obvious that the case should have been decided favorably at the Second Stage, it reflects negatively upon the Agency. OPM is an agency made up of people (obviously); as such, just as “people” don’t like to look foolish, OPM as an Agency made up of people, does not like to look “badly” or “foolish”. This duality of factual prisms is important to understand when entering into the Second, Reconsideration Stage of the “process”.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Hello and thanks for the great info. I have received a denial for disability reconsideration because their stating that I failed to provide the requested documents since September 30, 2013. I mailed such documents on 12-28-2013 along with faxing and emailing all medical documents and SF forms. I have called opm’s 888 number on several occasion and was told it was still pending and on February 3, 2014 it was assigned to another person. Then on March 17,2014 I received a denial letter stating since I have failed to provide the proper documents. I went to the post office and they gave me a printout that should a delivery was made on December 31, 2013. I’m not sure what else to do, besides getting a attorney to file a MSPD.any help would be really great help. I even sent them copies of my SSD approval.