The Office of Personnel Management does not publish an OPM disability retirement approval rate. It reports how many retirement claims it receives, how quickly it finalizes them, and how many annuitants sit on its rolls, but it has never released a simple percentage showing how many federal disability retirement applications it approves or denies in a given year. For anyone weighing whether to file, the more answerable question is what OPM requires, what causes applications to fail, and what happens if yours is denied.
Why No Approval Percentage Exists
OPM’s published retirement statistics either lump disability in with other categories or leave it out. The Agency Retirement Case Accuracy Report, for example, expressly covers “non-disability retirement application packages.”1U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retirement Statistics The Government Accountability Office’s 2019 audit of OPM retirement processing (GAO-19-217) looked hard at application volumes, staffing, and processing goals, including a fiscal year 2020 target to review disability eligibility in an average of 45 days, but it reported no disability-specific approval or denial figures. Its published metrics measure speed, not outcomes.2U.S. Government Accountability Office. Federal Retirement: OPM Actions Needed to Improve Application Processing Times
OPM’s Inspector General has taken the same tack. A November 2025 report on top management challenges noted that OPM’s retirement programs serve 2.7 million annuitants and disburse more than $106 billion a year, and flagged over $1.24 billion in improper payments across five years, but it did not break out disability approval rates.3OPM Office of Inspector General. Top Management Challenges for Fiscal Year 2026
What that means in practice: there is no headline number to peg your odds to. The variable you can actually influence is the quality of your application against the standard OPM applies.
What OPM Requires You to Prove
Most current applicants file under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). The core FERS requirements are set out in Title 5, Part 844 of the Code of Federal Regulations:4eCFR. Title 5, Part 844 — Federal Employees Retirement System Disability Retirement
- At least 18 months of creditable civilian service under FERS.
- A disease or injury, including psychiatric conditions, expected to last at least one year from the date the application is filed.
- A deficiency in performance, conduct, or attendance caused by the condition, or a condition that is otherwise incompatible with useful and efficient service or with retention in the position.
- An agency finding that it cannot reasonably accommodate the condition in the current position, and no declined offer of reassignment to a vacant position at the same grade and pay in the same commuting area.
- Proof that you have applied for Social Security disability benefits.5U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3112 — Documentation in Support of Disability Retirement
“Useful and efficient service” means acceptable performance of the critical or essential elements of the position combined with satisfactory conduct and attendance. That is a lower bar than the Social Security Administration’s standard for total disability. You do not have to prove you cannot work at all. You have to prove you cannot perform the essential duties of your specific position and that you cannot be reasonably accommodated or reassigned.
Applications are built around the SF 3112 forms: your own statement (3112A), your supervisor’s statement with the position description and recent appraisal (3112B), your physician’s statement dated no more than 60 days before filing (3112C), the agency’s accommodation and reassignment certification (3112D), and a completeness checklist (3112E). Employees still on the job or separated 31 days or fewer file through their agency personnel office. Anyone separated longer than 31 days files directly with OPM’s Retirement Operations Center in Boyers, Pennsylvania. The deadline is one year after separation.5U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3112 — Documentation in Support of Disability Retirement
OPM’s own handbook describes disability retirement as a “last resort,” appropriate only after reasonable efforts to preserve the employee’s job have failed. The agency is obligated to help you file; if it thinks you don’t qualify, it must still forward the application to OPM and let OPM decide.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. CSRS/FERS Handbook, Chapter 60
Why Applications Are Denied
Since OPM doesn’t publish aggregate denial data, what’s known about the common failure points comes from OPM’s own guidance, OIG reports, and legal practice. A few themes recur.
Weak or Vague Medical Documentation
Insufficient medical evidence is the most frequently cited cause of denial. OPM expects physician statements that go well past a diagnosis: clinical findings, a specific prognosis stating the condition is expected to last at least 12 months, an explanation of how the condition prevents performance of the essential elements of the particular job, and specific medical restrictions. Vague phrasing, such as a doctor writing that the patient “cannot work under stress” without elaborating, is a frequent problem.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. CSRS/FERS Handbook, Chapter 60 Documentation must be dated, signed, and on the physician’s letterhead, with all referenced enclosures actually included.7U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Disability Retirement Webcast Presentation
Failure to Tie the Condition to the Job
A diagnosis by itself does not win a claim. The application has to draw a direct line between the specific medical condition and the specific duties in the position description. Generic medical reports that never engage with the actual job requirements are a common shortfall.
Gaps in Accommodation and Reassignment Documentation
The agency must certify that it cannot accommodate the condition and has considered reassignment to any vacant position at the same grade and pay in the commuting area. If the SF 3112D is incomplete or contradicts other parts of the file, OPM may deny the claim. Refusing a valid reassignment offer can be fatal to the application.8U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3112 Instructions
Procedural and Administrative Errors
Missing signatures, blank fields, contradictory dates, wrong “last date of pay” entries, and failing to mark “disability application” in the right box have all produced denials. OPM has estimated that up to 40% of retirement applications overall arrive with missing or delayed information.9U.S. Government Accountability Office. GAO-19-217
Problems With the Social Security Application
FERS applicants must apply for SSDI. If you withdraw the SSDI application for any reason, OPM will dismiss the disability retirement claim outright. A denial of SSDI is not automatically disqualifying, but it can weaken the OPM claim because the two agencies sometimes look to each other’s findings.8U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3112 Instructions
What Happens if You’re Denied
A denial is not the end. You have 30 calendar days from the initial denial to request reconsideration. A different reviewer, including a new medical specialist, examines the file from scratch. This is where you submit additional medical evidence and address the specific deficiencies the denial letter identified. OPM then issues a final written decision.10U.S. Office of Personnel Management. CSRS/FERS Handbook, Chapter 3
If reconsideration also comes back as a denial, you can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which conducts an independent adjudication. From MSPB, a further appeal lies with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judicial review is narrow. Under the Supreme Court’s 1985 decision in Lindahl v. Office of Personnel Management, OPM’s factual findings on disability are “final and conclusive,” and courts can only review whether OPM made a fundamental procedural or legal error, not reweigh medical evidence.11Legal Information Institute. Lindahl v. Office of Personnel Management, 470 U.S. 768
A Recent Shift on Objective Evidence
In April 2026, the Federal Circuit decided Garland v. OPM, holding that OPM cannot deny a disability retirement application solely because the applicant lacks “objective” medical evidence such as lab tests. OPM must also consider subjective evidence, including diagnoses based on self-reported symptoms. The case involved a federal employee removed in 2016 for major depression, anxiety, and insomnia whose disability retirement claim was then denied for lack of objective documentation. The court found it inconsistent for OPM to fire someone for a medical inability to work while denying that the medical condition existed.12Federal News Network. Appeals Court Eases Disability Retirement Rules for Feds
The decision also reinforced the Bruner presumption: when an employee has been removed for medical inability to perform, the burden shifts to OPM to prove the employee does not qualify for disability retirement, rather than the employee having to prove that they do. If your removal was medical, that presumption is worth raising at every stage of the process.
One Boundary Worth Knowing
Approval is not the whole picture. FERS disability annuities are calculated on a formula tied to your “high-3” average salary and offset by any Social Security disability benefits you receive, with the calculation changing after the first 12 months and again at age 62.13U.S. Office of Personnel Management. FERS Computation After you are approved, earnings from post-retirement work are capped: reaching 80% of the current pay for the position you retired from triggers termination of the disability annuity.14U.S. Office of Personnel Management. RI 30-13 — Information for Disability Annuitants Those rules govern what happens after approval; they do not shape whether OPM grants the application in the first place.