How to apply to OPM for federal disability retirement when a medical condition keeps you from doing your federal or postal job.
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Federal disability retirement is a benefit for federal civil service employees and postal workers who develop a medical condition that keeps them from performing their jobs. It’s administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Most federal employees today are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which took effect in 1987. A smaller group hired before 1984 is still under the older Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which has its own disability rules.
To qualify for federal disability retirement benefits, you must meet certain medical and non-medical criteria, and you must apply for it properly. Unlike Social Security disability, you don’t have to prove you can’t work at all; you only need to show that you can no longer perform your current federal position. Keep reading to learn how to file for federal disability retirement benefits, as well as what to do if OPM denies your claim or later tries to terminate your benefits.
How to File an Application for Federal Disability Retirement
The process of applying for federal disability retirement can be broken down into six steps based on the elements you’ll need to prove you’re eligible for a federal disability retirement annuity.
1. Confirm Your Eligibility for Federal Disability
First, to be "eligible" for federal disability retirement benefits, you must file on time and:
- be a federal employee or postal worker (or have been a federal employee or postal worker in the last year)
- have completed at least 18 months of creditable civilian service under FERS (military service doesn’t count toward the 18 months, even if you’ve made a military service deposit), and
- not have declined a reasonable offer of reassignment to a vacant position in your agency, at the same grade or pay level or higher and within your commuting area, that you could perform.
You have to submit your application to OPM or to your former employing agency within one year of the date you separate from federal service. OPM can waive that deadline if you were mentally incompetent on the date you separated (or you became so within the following year)—in which case you have one year from the date you regain competency or a guardian is appointed, whichever comes first.
(Note: A CSRS federal employee must have five years of creditable civilian service to be eligible for benefits.)
You don't have to be a certain age to apply, but age does change how your annuity is figured: if you’re 62 or older when you retire—or you already meet the age and service requirements for an immediate voluntary retirement—OPM will use the regular FERS retirement formula instead of the disability formula. (And if you’re under 62 when you apply, OPM will recompute your annuity when you turn 62, crediting the time you spent on the disability rolls as service and increasing the average salary the formula is based on by the FERS cost-of-living increases paid to you while you were on those rolls.)
Learn more about federal disability retirement eligibility.
2. Prove Your Disability Qualifies for OPM Medical Retirement
Second, you must convince the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that you’re medically disabled. For the purposes of federal disability retirement, OPM will consider you disabled if you have a medical condition that has caused a “service deficiency in performance, conduct, or attendance” or has made you unable to perform “useful and efficient service.”
What does that mean? In a nutshell, you have to be unable to perform the essential functions of your current (or most recent) FERS or CSRS position because of your disability. Unlike Social Security disability, you don't have to prove that you can't work any type of job.
By far, this is the most difficult element to prove. Here’s the type of evidence that OPM will consider:
- objective clinical findings, diagnoses, and medical opinions
- subjective evidence of pain and disability, and
- any other evidence relating to the effect your condition has on your ability to perform in the grade or class of position you last occupied.
OPM will only consider your subjective evidence of disability and pain (for example, your written statements and testimony) when they're supported by competent medical evidence. You’ll need your doctor to explain your condition and how it affects your ability to perform the specific duties of your position. Your doctor should also provide objective test results, if possible. (The Federal Circuit has held that OPM can’t ignore a doctor’s diagnosis if it relies on your reported symptoms rather than lab work or imaging. (Garland v. OPM, No. 2024-2291 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 22, 2026).)
3. Establish Continuity of Your Disability for OPM
Third, you’ll need to establish the “continuity” of your disability. You must show OPM that your disabling medical condition is expected to continue for at least one year from the date you file your disability retirement application.
4. Prove You Couldn’t Be Accommodated or Reassigned
Fourth, you must show that because of your medical condition, an accommodation or reassignment by your agency wouldn’t enable you to do your job. You’ll have to show that:
- you haven’t declined a reasonable offer of reassignment to a vacant position your disability wouldn’t prevent you from doing, and
- the federal agency where you work can’t accommodate your disabling medical condition in a way that enables you to do the job you’ve been assigned to.
Your agency does part of this for you. On Form SF 3112D, the Agency Certification of Reassignment and Accommodation Efforts, your agency has to certify that it can’t accommodate your condition in your present position and that it considered you for any vacant position in the same agency, at the same grade or pay level, within the same commuting area, for which you’re qualified.
5. File for Social Security Disability Insurance
If you’re under age 62 and applying for federal disability retirement, FERS requires you to also apply for Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) benefits. (But you don’t need to qualify for SSDI to be able to get federal disability retirement.)
If you qualify for SSDI, you don't receive an SSDI benefit in addition to your full FERS annuity; it reduces it. If you’re under 62, OPM will cut your monthly annuity by 100% of your Social Security disability benefit during the first 12 months, and by 60% of it after that, for any month you’re entitled to both. (Learn how to apply for SSDI.)
6. How to File Your Federal Disability Retirement Application and Documentation
You have to apply for federal disability retirement through OPM’s Online Retirement Application (ORA). If you’re still a federal employee, you start by contacting your agency’s human resources office. HR will start the application for you in the ORA app, with information you've gathered, and will forward the completed package to OPM.
If you’ve already separated from federal service, you have to file directly with OPM through the ORA app. (You’ll create an ORA account and verify your identity through Login.gov.). From the ORA homepage, choose “Options for former federal employees,” then “Start disability application.” Your application must be submitted to OPM within one year of your separation date.
You’ll also need your supervisor and your former agency to complete parts of Form SF 3112, Documentation in Support of Disability Retirement. This forms package includes the Supervisor’s Statement (SF 3112B), the Agency Certification of Reassignment and Accommodation Efforts (SF 3112D), and the Disability Retirement Application Checklist (SF 3112E). Those documents are required even if you left federal service some time ago. You’ll also need documentation showing that you’ve applied for SSDI.
What If OPM Denies Your Federal Disability Retirement?
If OPM denies your application for federal disability retirement, you can appeal, but you can’t delay. You have 30 days to request reconsideration.
You have to request reconsideration of the OPM denial in writing. Your written request has to be received by OPM (not the Merit Systems Protection Board) within 30 calendar days of the date on OPM’s initial decision letter. Include your name, address, date of birth, claim number, and the reasons you disagree with the denial. OPM can extend the 30-day deadline only if you can show that you weren’t notified of the deadline and weren’t aware of it, or that circumstances beyond your control kept you from filing in time.
If OPM denies your timely request for reconsideration, you have the right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). You have 30 days from the date you receive OPM’s final reconsideration decision to file that appeal. You will file this next appeal through the MSPB’s e-Appeal system, which walks you through the process, or you can submit MSPB Form 185 on paper to the MSPB regional or field office serving your area. At MSPB, an administrative judge (AJ) will review and decide your case. The AJ’s review might include a hearing or a request for additional information.
If the AJ denies your appeal, you can file a petition for review (PFR) with the Clerk of the Board in Washington, D.C. You have 35 days from the date the AJ’s initial decision is issued to file it (or 30 days from the date you received the decision). You can submit the petition for review online through the e-Appeal system or send a written request to the Clerk’s office. The Merit Systems Protection Board will then decide your case.
If you're denied again, you can take your case to federal court, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can consider only legal errors, such as a denial of important procedural rights or a misreading of the governing statute, and the error has to be serious enough to have changed the outcome (that is, you wouldn't have been denied benefits if it weren't for the error).
What If Your Federal Disability Retirement Benefits Are Terminated?
Federal disability retirement benefits don’t always last until you reach retirement. The OPM can stop paying your federal disability retirement if you’re under age 60, and:
- you’ve “medically recovered”
- you’re reemployed in federal service in a position equivalent to the one you held at retirement, or
- OPM finds you "restored to earning capacity," meaning that your income from wages and self-employment in a calendar year reaches 80% of the current rate of basic pay for the position you held immediately before you retired. In this case, your annuity will end on June 30 of the following year. (Note that the comparison is to the current pay rate for that position, not the salary you were actually earning, so the ceiling rises as federal pay rises.)
OPM can initiate medical reviews to determine you've experienced medical recovery at any time before you turn 60. After age 60, OPM will generally only review your medical condition at your request.
If OPM has terminated your disability retirement benefits, but your condition gets worse again, you may be able to get them reinstated. The standards for seeking reinstatement are somewhat different depending on whether your annuity was terminated because:
- you medically recovered, or
- you were restored to earning capacity. (5 C.F.R. § 844.404.)
If OPM found you medically recovered, you can have the annuity reinstated if you’re under 62, you aren’t reemployed in a position covered by FERS, and a current medical exam shows the disability has recurred.
If your annuity ended because your earning capacity was restored, whether your annuity will be reinstated depends on your income rather than your medical condition. If your wage and self-employment income in a later calendar year drops below 80% of the current rate of basic pay for your old position, OPM will reinstate the annuity effective January 1 of the following year, as long as you haven’t medically recovered and you aren’t reemployed under FERS.
If you’re going to seek reinstatement of previously terminated federal disability retirement benefits, you apply to the OPM. No special form is needed, but you will need to follow OPM’s reinstatement application guidelines.
Get Help With the Federal Disability Retirement Process
The FERS application process can be daunting and overwhelming. Decades of case law have refined the process and helped establish the criteria above. But you might need to provide the OPM with more or less information, depending on your unique situation.
Consider working with a disability lawyer if you have doubts that you'll be approved for a federal disability retirement annuity or if you’ve been denied. An experienced disability retirement attorney can work with you and your doctor to help you build a stronger case.
