Maryland Social Security disability
Maryland Disability Lawyers: For Federal Workers, the Social Security Claim Is Not Optional
Federal employees in Maryland who leave on FERS disability retirement are required to apply for Social Security disability as part of that process. The two benefits are then linked by a published formula.
For that group the usual question, whether a Social Security claim is worth filing, has already been answered by their own retirement system. The question that remains is what an approval does to the monthly figures, and the answer is a subtraction that most people first see on a statement rather than in advance. Five hearing offices decide Maryland claims and only one of them is in Maryland.
5
Hearing offices deciding Maryland claims, four of them outside the state
1
Hearing offices actually located in Maryland
60% then 40%
The FERS disability formula, before the Social Security reduction
No fee
Unless you win
Why the claim is required
Why Federal Employees in Maryland Must File a Social Security Disability Claim
FERS disability retirement turns on whether you can still render useful and efficient service in your own position.
Because the retirement system requires it. Applying for Social Security disability is one of the conditions for FERS disability retirement, and the Office of Personnel Management lists it among the requirements an applicant has to meet. Approval is not required. The application is.
Worth setting expectations before the detail: the two systems ask different questions and reach their answers separately. FERS disability retirement turns on whether you can still render useful and efficient service in your own position. Social Security asks whether you can do any substantial work at all, anywhere in the national economy. A federal worker can fall short of the second while clearly meeting the first, and a Social Security denial does not by itself decide the OPM application.
That difference cuts the other way too. Social Security is the harder test of the pair, so an approval there is a strong fact to have on the record, and it is the benefit that carries Medicare eligibility after the waiting period.
What an approval does to the money
How Social Security Disability Changes a Maryland Federal Employee's FERS Annuity
It reduces it, on a formula OPM publishes rather than by discretion. In the first year the annuity is 60 percent of the high-3 average salary minus 100 percent of the monthly Social Security benefit, for any month you are entitled to that benefit. From the second year it becomes 40 percent of the high-3 minus 60 percent of the Social Security benefit. In either period you receive your earned annuity instead if that is larger, which is a floor the formula never drops below. At 62 the annuity is recalculated as though the person had kept working until then.
Two payments that move against each other are easy to misread on a bank statement, and the fear of ending up worse off stops people from filing at all. The arithmetic does not support that fear. The reduction takes all of the Social Security benefit in the first year and 60 percent of it after that, so from the second year on the Social Security award adds to the total. What the formula does is change the mix, not empty the pot.
The timing is where real money gets lost. Social Security often pays back to a date months or years earlier, and for those same months the annuity was calculated without any reduction, so the two records have to be squared with each other afterward. Anyone in this position should expect that reconciliation and plan for it rather than spend the retroactive payment first.
Where your case is decided
Which Hearing Office Decides Your Maryland Disability Claim?
The lower Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland go to Norfolk, in Virginia.
One of five, and four of them sit outside Maryland. Baltimore covers most of Maryland, from Elkton across to Hagerstown and down to Annapolis. Everything else leaves.
The Washington suburbs go to the hearing office in the District: Camp Springs, Greenbelt, Rockville and Silver Spring, which is to say Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. The lower Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland go to Norfolk, in Virginia. Cambridge goes to Dover, in Delaware. Cumberland goes to Charlottesville, in Virginia.
So a Maryland claim can be decided in three states and the District of Columbia, and the assignment follows the Social Security field office serving the address rather than the county line. Baltimore's own list runs the other way as well, taking in Winchester, which is in Virginia.
The five offices
Every Hearing Office That Decides Maryland Disability Claims
Hearing offices
5decide this state's claims
Service area lines name Social Security field offices rather than cities or counties, which is how the assignment is actually made.
Five hearing offices decide Maryland claims: Baltimore, Charlottesville, Virginia, Dover, Delaware, Norfolk, Virginia and Washington, District of Columbia. Charlottesville, Dover, Norfolk and Washington sit outside Maryland.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office and updates it monthly, so check the office that takes your claim.
Cities we serve in Maryland
Maryland Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across Maryland. Baltimore has its own page. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Your lawyer does not need a Maryland license to represent you on a Social Security claim. Social Security's rule asks for an attorney in good standing who has the right to practice law before a court of a state, the District of Columbia, a U.S. territory or island possession, or a federal court, who is not disqualified or suspended from representing claimants, and whom no law prohibits from acting as a representative. How an out-of-state disability lawyer works.
Maryland SSDI Questions: Federal Retirement, Hearing Offices and Denials
I work for a federal agency in Maryland. Do I have to apply for Social Security to get FERS disability retirement?
Yes. Applying for Social Security disability is one of the requirements for FERS disability retirement, and the Office of Personnel Management lists it among the conditions an applicant has to meet. You do not have to be approved by Social Security. You do have to apply, and the receipt for that application is part of what goes to OPM.
If Social Security approves me, does my FERS annuity go down?
It does, by a formula OPM publishes. In the first year the annuity is 60 percent of your high-3 average salary minus 100 percent of your monthly Social Security benefit, as OPM's computation rules set out. From the second year it is 40 percent of the high-3 minus 60 percent of the Social Security benefit, or your earned annuity if that is higher. The combined total is still more than the reduced annuity alone.
Social Security denied me. Does that end my FERS disability retirement application?
No, because the two ask different questions. FERS disability retirement turns on whether you can still render useful and efficient service in your own position. Social Security asks whether you can do any substantial work at all. It is possible to fail the second test and meet the first, which is why a Social Security denial is not the end of an OPM application and why the two are worth running with that difference in mind.
My hearing office is in Washington, DC. Is that right for a Maryland claim?
It is. Four Maryland field offices, Camp Springs, Greenbelt, Rockville and Silver Spring, are assigned to the Washington hearing office, so Montgomery and Prince George's County claims are decided there rather than in Baltimore. The same office also takes claims from the District itself and from Alexandria, Manassas and Reston in Virginia. The standard applied is federal and does not change at the line.
I am receiving federal workers' compensation. Can I take OPM disability retirement at the same time?
Generally you elect one or the other rather than both, and OPM suspends its payment while workers' compensation is being paid. If the compensation stops you can ask OPM to start. A scheduled award is the exception and can be received alongside OPM retirement.
Cumberland and Salisbury claims are heard in Virginia. Does that change the rules?
No. Five hearing offices decide Maryland claims and four of them sit outside Maryland, but the rules applied to the file are federal and do not change with the office. What changes is whose calendar your hearing date comes off. Social Security offers hearings by phone, online video, agency video or in person, so the distance is not always something a claimant travels. If you object in writing within 30 days of the notice to both phone and agency video, Social Security schedules you in person (or by online video if you agree), and it reimburses reasonable travel costs when the hearing site is more than seventy-five miles from home.
Filing for both? Get the order right the first time.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours. Tell us where you filed and we will tell you which office your address routes to. We work from Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations by phone or video. There is no Maryland office and none is implied.