Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.
Welcome to Reyna Retirement. Reyna Reyes has dedicated her career to helping people make small, smarter financial decisions. Reina retirement is all about breaking down complex financial concepts into language you can actually understand.
Now here's the co founder of American Federal Benefits Consultants, Reina reyes.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Well, if Matchbox 20 sings a song about being unwell, we all can relate to that. We've all had some type of flu or a cold or a stomach bug or whatever, but they're talking about more like an anxiety and things like that. And that is a reason that somebody could apply for federal disability retirement. Not a cold, not a stomach bug, but something more severe. Now, somebody says, who can apply for federal disability retirement? Am I eligible? Well, how long you been there? How long you been at the Fed or at the post office? 18 months or more. You're eligible to potentially get approved for if you apply for disability retirement from federal or postal service.
But what qualifies you? Well, you have to have been disabled or something. That's going to prevent you from doing your job. Not my job, not his job, your job for at least a year. And you've got to be able to prove this by virtue of history, medical documentation, your supervisor, and also your doctors proving that you got something going on that's going to prevent you from working at your job for at least a year. Now a lot of people say, well, Raina, I don't know how to do it. I'm so concerned. I don't know what. What's happening. I need your help. We can definitely help. And remember, attorneys can do great things, but they're still submitting standard documents on your behalf through your human resources. It still goes through hr. So a lot of people have said, man, I think it's better. I think I'll probably go ahead and just try myself, and if I get denied, maybe then I'll retain some type of representation. Everybody's different. You do whatever your heart tells you or whatever makes the most sense for you.
A lot of people like to do it, no cost first, and then potentially do it the other way around. But you say, raina, what are these documents? What are these standard documents? What do I have to do? How am I gonna do it? Sergeant York from the movie Sergeant York back in the day how am I gonna do it? How's he gonna plow this top soil when the bottom soil is so much better? Well, how are you gonna plow this? How are you gonna do it? Well, let me see what you got to do to get started. The first thing you have to do is apply for Social Security Disability. Now, did I say you have to get approved?
No, I said you have to apply for Social Security Disability. Reina, how do I do that? You go to SSA.gov, login, and then you go to apply for benefits. Once you've done that, there's another sub level that says apply for disability benefits. You follow the process. You type in your name, address, birthday, social, everybody you've ever been married to and all of what's going on wrong with you and all your doctors. You hit submit, then you're done, you've applied.
Keep your proof. Do a printed PDF of your application before you hit submit, because that's when you can save it. Usually unless the thing has changed. But now you've got proof that you applied.
That's all they care about at the Fed. Did you apply? Yes. Yes. Check. Raina, I didn't get approved. Nobody asked you if you got approved. They asked you. Did you apply? So that is step one, apply for Social Security Disability.
Step two, standard forms. Standard forms. Now, used to be you had to go get paper, you had to go get these documents and actually fill them out yourself.
That has gone by the wayside. Now you're able to contact your human resources and request access to AURA ORA online retirement application. And once you get access, then you can plug and chug, put all your stuff in there. In addition to these documents, some of these you still have to upload, but you still have an online portal for submission.
Raina, what the heck is a 3112? Well, that is the supervisory statement. These are the forms that are required. You want to open a case, these are required. There are some other forms that you don't have to have to kick off your case, but these are required. So you've got to have the supervisor statement. And that supervisor statement has some required bits on here. They're going to say, is Joan showing up to work? Is Joan calling out sick all the time? How's Joan's performance at the job timesheet? Are you showing up? Is there misconduct? Was your misconduct caused by whatever your problem is? And those are some of the synapses you want to create, the connections you want to create that. Hey, yeah, I was acting crazy at work. Because I'm taking medicine for dealing with this stuff.
So you've got to have the supervisor statement, you've got to have the COVID letter. You've got to have the certificate of accommodation. So this is reasonable accommodations.
Back when we were in college, an RA was a resident assistant here in work. It is reasonable accommodations. Reina, what the heck? I couldn't get it reasonably accommodated. Did you apply? That's what we're showing. Did you actually request it? Did your doctor request it? Did your doctor say Joan can only lift 10 pounds? She can't lift 20.
Joan needs an ergonomic chair. She needs an up down desk because she can't sit because she's got sciatica. She. She got to work from home three days a week because of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Joan has migraines and needs a dark room in which to work. I could tell you stories about some accommodations that were pretty excessive, but they were accommodated nonetheless. If you're getting accommodated, then that's good because you can keep getting 100% of your salary. If you're not getting accommodated, you need the proof. Don't take your supervisor as verbal. You can send them an email. Per our conversation, you. You confirmed with me on such and such a date at such and such a time, at such and such a location that I. That there is no accommodation for the request I made on such and such a date. If you can't get a documentation, create it. If it's not on paper, it didn't happen.
So, all right, what is not required now? It is required, but it's not required at to open up the actual application. The physician statement. Why is it not required? Because it takes longer to get it. We love our doctors, but they're not incredibly quick, right?
Because time is on their side. Yes, it is. So they take all the time they want to, but correction, they take usually two weeks, two, three weeks maybe to get this physician statement.
Now this is not a fill in the blank. This is not a multiple choice.
When they say, send me the form, we'll fill it out. There is no form to fill out. There's a list of directions. This 3112 Charlie C is the physician statement. And it's got directions on it. Basically, it's essay format doctors. It's just to say, hey, I'm treating Joan for XYZ PDQ and I'm treat and it's going to last this long. She's taking XYZ medications. She's got these issues and it's the whole. It's going to last a certain amount of time is pretty crucial because it needs to last a year or more for a potential approval. And if you got more than one doctor, you can get more than one physician statement, my friend.
You can get your, you know, endocrinologist and your podiatrist and your cardiologist and your nephrologist and your allist, get them all and your primary.
So get all that stuff, get it together. But you don't need it for submission. But it is worth getting started because it's not fast. So what's the process? This is kind of, I want to breeze through this. You get all the, you get the estimate, you create the thing. Now this is GRB specific. This one, this, these forms came for the va, but it's going to be very similar across the board because you can request an estimate. You can request a retirement estimate specific to disability based on your years of service and your age and your high 3 salary. That's the main thing they need because the calculation is pretty standard.
And then they usually they'll send you a disability package, but that's when they were doing paper. Now they'll get you access to the online package and then the estimate gets done. So what's the next step? They go ahead and get you kicked off. You're going to get the documents going.
Now again, this is, I like this because this is still the paper version, but if you upload them to Aura, that's what's going to be happening. They're going to get all the documents in there and, and then they create you the online retirement application and they send you what's needed for signature. So remember, there's an online portal and you'll put all your stuff in there online, but there's still some documents to upload. And then they create your case and then you're going to get assigned.
The next page will say that you're assigned to a case manager. They get all the documents up there and you get a counselor to kick you off. And it's not fast. I'm just telling you this process takes a minute. Once you get assigned to a counselor, my biggest recommendation would be to keep your scheduled doctor's appointments and if you didn't have them, keep booking them. That way, when you finish with a doctor's appointment, you get the printout of what happened that day. And that is just used to submit to your case manager. That way you're submitting new information and you, they're, you're front of mind to them.
But you're not harassing them. You know, you're like, what's going on my case? What's going on my case? What are you guys doing up there? What the heck?
No, you're saying, hey, some updated information.
Had to go to the doctor again. Got a new diagnosis, had to change doctors. Here's my new guy. Just keeping you updated.
And you don't even ask. But because they're getting this information, they got to touch your case. It's a nice way to stay top of mind.
So let's say they review your case and, and then they tell you either yay or nay. Now, this says a decision is generally, generally reached between six and 12 months after a submission. My experience, however, has been between 4 and 6. It's usually a little faster. They're going to give themselves a nice little wide window.
But usually I see four to six months for a response. And if you get a denial, you need to appeal like a banshee. You don't have a lot of time to respond.
It looks like a lot of time when you look at it on paper, but it's not. It's like a month, not even 15 days maybe. I can't even remember. It doesn't matter. It's not a lot of time. Do it fast. So you want to appeal that pretty quick.
And so on approval, they're going to mail you your retirement counselor and get that correspondence going so you can get the process started. And as I mentioned, if you get denied this, send you what you do to appeal. So let's say you get approved. Your retirement counselor will request the last day from payroll. But that has some caveats. What if you got a ton of sick leave? Usually they will have your sick leave burned, and you will use it all to delay retirement payments, which is the best thing for you and them.
And if you hadn't already been using sick leave, you should. So you want to even correspond with them, hey, I've got eight months of leave, Let me burn it. Or I've got eight hours of leave, let me burn it. And then that retirement date is chosen not by you, but by them based on that payroll date.
So that's kind of cool and beneficial. But I'm telling you, even after approval, it's a, it's a. Still a bit of a waiting game. Commonly another good month before you get any dust really settling on decisions.
So let's go into the deep dive on the supervisor statement. What does it require? What's part of it? Your supervisor has to fill this out. But what does it entail. It's required to submit it open, but they've got to talk about whether you've been showing up, your leave, your conduct, all the things.
If your supervisor just won't do it, you can always go to the next one up.
You can always request a second supervisor. You can always request multiples of these. It is preferred to have your direct report.
However, I can. My goodness, I can tell you stories. They just won't do it. I've asked them, I've sent it. I have three emails where I sent them the supervisor statement and they won't get it back to me. Okay.
Send copies of those emails to their supervisor and request it from them. And usually they're going to get sandwiched between you and that next supervisor and they'll put the fire under them.
So I've also seen where supervisors maybe didn't tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
If you can prove these things, it will be good. I've seen two have returned after a supervisor told some falsehoods on one of these statements. All right, next page you've got the physician statement. So remember, this is not required to kick it off, But I'm telling you, this is part of the first step. When you find yourself doing your Social Security disability application, you want to submit the. The physician statement requirements to your doctors, all of them, simultaneously. Because it's going to take them a minute, it's going to take them a while. So they're not, like I said before, they're not fill in the blank. It's not like a form you send them that they can bubble in abcd.
This is an essay format. So you want to get it to all of them and make that request because it's. It's literally, what am I treating this person for? How long is it going to last? How bad is it? What is the outlook? What's the history been?
Most doctors are good to go with this. Some will charge for it.
I'm, you know, I'm not a fan of that. I don't. I don't find that to be the best way to do it. But if they're charging, I mean, what's the cost here? I mean, I would just say, sounds good, man. Make it happen. Now, if I pay you forward, are you going to get it back to me within a week? You know, but that's me. I have a bad attitude towards some of this stuff. So. So, but just, I would get that request in as soon as you possibly can because time will go by regardless and you want to get the washer started before you can, you know, put it in the dryer, fold it, and put it away.
So what's our wrap up here? You need to understand that there's also a certification of reassignment. So this is another place where these supervisors, good people, all of them really great, they're following the rules. They have to attempt to potentially reassign you.
Usually these jobs have to be similar pay, similar craft, similar stuff. And then they may attempt to accommodate you first.
Play the game, but document it. Document all of these things.
If you get the accommodation record or take notes of how it's helping you or how the accommodation is insufficient, if it is insufficient, or even remember these accommodations have a requirement. There's a. There's a list of requirements of what could actually constitute a truly.
A truly acceptable reassignment. And your doctor has to be okay with it, too. You know, if I'm a letter carrier with the post office, there's not a lot of easy reassignments I can do that are going to still be my same pay grade, because letter carrier is pretty physical. You know, you got to do a lot of stuff. So that's an example. So prepare that. This is a sticking point. I've seen people get sort of stuck in this reassignment rut and not have a lot of movement.
There's always the request for the upper management, things like that, to, you know, kind of confirm. And even the doctor's note, hey there. You know, a reassignment would require XYZ for this to be a true acceptable accommodation and reassignment of job for this person.
So disability retirement is not the first way to go, but it may be your only way to go if you are ineligible to retire but have those 18 months of service and your health is preventing you from doing your job. Remember, if you have sick leave, you want to use it first for sure, because it's 100% of your salary. Getting approved for disability retirement pays you 60% of your high 3 salary the first year and then 40% of your high 3 salary in all subsequent years until you reach the age of 62. Once you do reach 62, they recalculate, and as if you had worked the entire time up till 62. If you have 20 or more years at that point, then you do get the 1.1% calculation, but if not, then you get your regular, regular calculation. Commonly, that pension will be less than what you've been receiving from disability retirement. But while you were receiving your 60% and 40% maybe. You also got approved for Social Security disability.
Remember, that will be offset. You cannot get all of both until you are 62 years old.
And after that you get them both. All of them. But before then, one will offset the other. Social Security. You get all of it regardless. But it will reduce what your federal disability retirement benefit is by either 100 or 60, depending on what year you're in.
People like, what the heck? That's bull. That's why it may be worth having a conversation with me and my team to go over the options that you have and what, what the money is going to look like. Is it more, you know, how, how close in proximity are you to a regular eligibility? Some people are months away. And in that case, I'm like, I don't even bother with disability application because it's going to take them four to six months to approve you anyway. Just wait and do regular. So there's a lot of things to consider.
Am I going to work, Am I going to go to work after I get approved for disability retirement? You could, you can make up to 80% of what your salary was while you were working, while you're receiving your 60 or 40% of your salary. Now, that's a good gig. I got a couple people doing that and they just don't ever reapply for Social Security disability after they got denied because they were working anyway.
Anticipated denial from Social Security disability if you're working when you apply. That's why we're saying I'm not incredibly concerned about the approval. I just got to check this checkbox that I apply.
So want to put that in perspective for you. Get some visuals on there because I know I'm pretty visual person myself. You have access to me and my team. I would say get scheduled if it's disability stuff. Get those steps out of the way, get some of this stuff rolling. We can help with the math. We can help with the documents. We can help with, you know, post ts, post retirement with tsp, Medicare options. Because after you've had disability for two years, you have Medicare by then. So there's a ton of things we can help you with. But remember, we're not hr. We can't give you access to the portal. It does help if you've taken some steps by the time you reach out to us for that. Because remember, even if you get approved, you can still say no, which is kind of crazy. People have gotten approved for disability retirement and said, nah, I'm gonna go ahead and keep work. Just kidding.
It may not be worth that effort. But it has happened. It can happen.
But if you get to that point, let us know. We can help you with all of it. Talk to you soon.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to Reyna Retirement With a strong commitment to ethical standards, Raina works hard to find the right solution for each individual or family who reaches out for advice. To contact Reyna directly, call 850-450-6500. That's 850-450-6500. Or to reach the team at American Federal Benefits Consultants, call 1800-180087-28857. That's 1-800-872- 8857. You can also go online to americanfederal.org not affiliated with the United States Government. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. The information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. American Federal Benefits Consultants is an independent organization, not a government agency or affiliated with the Federal government or any state government. The terms CSRs, FERs, FELI, and FEHB are all registered trademarks of the U.S. office of Personnel Management. American Federal Benefits Consultants, agents, consultants, or any independent contractors do not provide tax, legal, legal or investment advice and do not engage in the solicitation or sale of securities. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations.
