Larry Romine says," Currently I am counseling 20+ rails, per

Retirement mistakes

Larry Romine says," Currently I am counseling 20+ rails, per week, on retirement, disability and insurance issues. Usually I send out an email about what rails can do to get all the benefits they are entitled to. This email is similar, but I will start with the mistakes made by John and Marsha, on their journey to disability.

John had a condition that was gradually getting worse. He knew at some point and time, he would be forced to stop working. It was just a matter of how long his disease would allow him to work.

John calls and states that this is it. He is done. His last day at work will be 8-4. His body was no longer up to working at the railroad. I congratulated him and told him to NOT sign anything, since he is going for a disability, NOT retirement. I told him once he gets his paperwork from the RRB to call me and we would fill everything out. Plan on 2 hours.

Next thing I hear is from Marsha. She sends me a picture of the UP form that states that John has retired! It is signed by John! I immediately call the GC Office and am told that as of 30 minutes ago, John is in Retirement status, according to the UP computers. At this point John is retired as far as the UP is concerned and his benefits are stopping at the end of the month!!

I call John and asked what in the world he was up to. John told me that he had gone to the RRB and talked with them and followed their advice. He filed for disability and then "Retired while waiting for Disability". He had to sign the UP retirement form, or else he would be expected to come back to work!! All without telling the UP he had a disability!!!

Remember, the RRB will let you do anything that is legal. Also, the RRB does not study our insurances. Especially for those of us on Iron Road Health Care.

-------

What did John lose, by disabling with the RRB and then "retiring while waiting for disability". And not informing the UP about his disabity?

-With a disability, you get the first 5 months of Sickness benefits that do not have to be paid back. $2,000 X 5 = $10,000

-John had the SMART-TD Short Term. With Disability, you get $400 X 34 weeks = $13,400. No benefit if retired.

-John has Iron Road Health Care. Once a rail retires, his insurance ends, one month from his last month with 7 compensated starts. John loses 30 months of insurance. 30 X $1000 per month = $30,000.

-Marsha's insurance, since John was never put on a Medical Leave Of Absence, will lose her insurance in one month. With a Proof Of John's Disability, she would have free insurance for 18 months X $1000 = $18,000.

--Total loss of over $70,000.

What did John gain, by disabling, then "retiring while waiting for disability"?

-He would get his retirement, with a 30% reduction until he is OK'd for disability, or about $3500 a month. The problem with this is that he will have to pay this back. Once he is disabled, the RRB will refigure from his onset date, which will be the day after he last worked and look at what is owed to him in disability. Since the RRB does NOT pay anything for an Occupational disability for the first 5 months, those retirement payments will have to be repaid to the RRB!!

What I would, suggest for someone in John's position, is to first tell the UP that you have a disability. Get on a Medical Leave of Absence. Take your $2,000 a month in RRB Sickness and the $1600 a month in short term, making $3600 a month, and keep the employee and spousal insurances going.

Once John starts running out of the benefits that do not have to be paid back, he can start looking at doing the "Retirement while waiting for disability.

--

Once I could see what John's decision was going to cost he and Marsha, I started to work on a plan to claw back as much of his benefits as possible. I did NOT know if I could reverse his mistakes, but I had to try.

I talked with some friends at the RRB and found out that as long as the pay has not started that an RRB retirement can be reversed.

Next I contacted the General Chairman and asked him if he would contact UP Labor Relations and put John into a Medical Leave of Absence. This is the tricky part. The UP does not have to do this. I have worked on other cases where Labor Relations would change a member's status, but it is never guaranteed.

Received notice from the General Chairman that John had been taken out of retirement status. So I contacted John to have his doctor fill out a proof of disability for the Railroad, United Health Care for his wife and Iron Road for his own Insurance.

I had John contact the RRB and request they stop his "Retirement while waiting for disability" status. Also had John contact UP Timekeeping to keep them from paying off his next years vacation pay. If we can keep the UP from paying him out until after January 1st, his wife will be able to pick up another 3 months of insurance until she qualifies for Medicare.

John had a meeting with the RRB and the RRB asked me to join. I explained that they needed to wait for a decision on their disability and not to start the retirement. John needs to start his RRB sickness benefits. The RRB agreed.

Next we had John's S&T show he was not retired, but on a MLOA. This allowed John to contact the SMART short term and get his disability benefit started.

UP Timekeeping had already paid out his vacation for the 2025 year and for 2026. This would make it so that Marsha would miss out on 3 months of health insurance in 2027, before she goes on Medicare. Our only loss. But she will have UHC Insurance through December 31st 2026

After several weeks, I was able to help return about $70,000 worth of benefits that John and Marsha had signed away. They had no idea that there was a better way to leave the UP and the RRB was more than happy to allow them to do anything that was legal. What I would tell you is that it never hurts to have someone give a second opinion on your disability, or retirement plans. Make sure to get ALL of the benefits you are entitled to.

My consultations are a part of your GO-953 Union Dues. There was no charge to get his benefits back. Take advantage of your benefits.

Fraternally,

Currently I am counseling 20+ rails, per week, on retirement, disability and insurance issues. Usually I send out an email about what rails can do to get all the benefits they are entitled to. This email is similar, but I will start with the mistakes made by John and Marsha, on their journey to disability.