General Discussions

GO-953 Officers:

Last week, I received a call from John, a trainman out of Texas. He was referred to me from a rail I had helped several years ago.

John explained that he had already applied for an Occupational disability. He had contracted West Nile, ended up in the hospital and had a seizure about a year ago. His Neurologist is giving him a release for work on September 3rd. But the Neurologist tells John that the UP will never let him go back to work.

I ask John what the UP is saying to him. He tells me they have not talked to him, at all.

I ask when his application for disability had gone in. He tells me that the Doctor still has more information to get to the RRB.

I ask if he is getting his RRB Sickness benefits. John tells me that he has NOT applied. I ask WHY? He tells me that he was told, by his buddies at the Railroad, that for every month you take sickness benefits, you lose a month of retirement.

Next John told me that he tried to take at least 1 day of vacation every month from the Railroad, but the UP had refused to do that. Then a friend told him that he could gain months of RRB service if he worked 1 day a month for the Union. He started doing that in February!! I asked him why he is doing that and the only reason he had was he wanted to increase his disability/retirement money.

John is 58 years old, with 340 Months of service.

So far, John has screwed up his disability about as bad as a person can. I want to explain this in two ways. First, how bad John has screwed up, then I want to end with what John should have done!

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John should have applied for RRB Sickness benefits. When applying for a disability, the first 5 months, from John's onset date, the only pay from the RRB that John will receive is Sickness benefits. Sickness benefits do not cost John any months of service and since he was not hurt at work, do not need to be paid back. $94 X 106 days = about $10,000 Lost, no way to claim this money after the fact. You must start your claim within 30 days of your first day of missed work, or it is near to impossible to back date with the RRB.

In a disability claim, what the RRB does is establish an onset date. In John's case it will probably be the day he went into the Hospital. Once the first 5 months go by, then the RRB will start putting aside his Disability pay, to be released to John when he is deemed to be disabled by the RRB. John went into the hospital in August, 2023. So his $5000 a month would start accumulating in February, 2024. February through August, 2024, would give John 7 months X $5000 = $35,000. EXCEPT, any time John would make over $1210 in a month he would lose his disability annuity for the month. OR, anytime he worked for a Railroad or Union, he would lose that month of Annuity. so, John has lost another $35,000, and he does not have his application in yet!!

What did John stand to gain? Tier 1 is based on your best 35 years. John already had over 35 working years, so he gained NOTING in tier 1 benefits. Tier 2 is based on your best 5 years. Knowing that John made over the maximum allowable for Tier 2 in each of the last 5 years, John will gain $5.60 for each month, and his wife will get 45% of this when she retires, so call it an $8 per month increase in the disability annuity / retirement, for each month John works for the Union. Then John Loses $5,000 a month in his disability Annuity for working for the Union that month.

In addition, I am being told by former RRB employees, that by working for the Union, John may not get the original onset date, but a later date when he stops working for the Union. That will only complicate John's disability further.

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I have recommended working for the Union dozens of times. In those 5 months, from onset date to the date you qualify for your disability annuity to begin, if you need 1 - 5 months to get to 60, 120, 240 or 360 months of service, it makes sense. I had one case where we had a rail work at the union for nearly a year, because he was disqualified for vision and he needed 10 months for his 240 months and Occupational disability qualification. There was no way he could have received a total disability, so this was worth it for this rail. Each case is different. But just to work for the Union to rack up a few more months, is not worth it and could change your onset date. Working after the 5 months after onset, is nearly prohibitive, unless you have a very special goal. Always get a second opinion!!!

All John has done so far is to lose over $45,000 in benefits and possibly delay when his disability is going to get started. He did gain $56 total, in his and his wife's monthly disability / retirement check, when or if he qualifies. But without talking to UP Medical, he really does not know if he has a job or not!

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What should John have done?

First, as soon as possible, John should have applied for ALL benefits that he qualified for. Short Term, and RRB Sickness benefits included. There is NEVER a good reason to wait. With RRB sickness benefits, you have limited time to claim or start losing benefits. Then John should have kept an open dialog with UP Medical on his condition. I would also advise that he needed to start a claim for Disability as soon as possible. It costs nothing to apply and if you get back to work, the application goes away. Even if you get OK'd for an Occupational Disability, then a year later, your condition improves, you can go back to work. Your seniority is protected in disability until your full retirement age.

Just because your doctor tells you that the UP will not employ you, means very little. Only UP Medical can make that decision. Same thing for when your doctor tells you that you can go back to work. This means nothing, unless UP Medical states that you CAN go back to work. We appreciate our doctors, but ONLY UP Medical knows for sure.

Working for the Union to get months of service is an idea that should be used carefully. Getting to 60, 120, 240 or 360 months of service can be very important, but you have to look at all of the consequences to make sure if it is worth it.

If you have a member that goes out Medical, have them contact me. The goal should always be to maximize benefits and to protect your job!

Fraternally,

Larry Romine

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