Postal Employees' Relief Fund

  

Eligibility Criteria

 

(Effective for disasters/fires occurring on or after August 28, 2005)

 

Relief grants will be considered for property damage sustained to a primary residence due to a major natural disaster such as but not limited to a hurricane, flood, tornado, wildfire, or earthquake; and also for property damage as the result of an isolated house fire that occurred on or after December 18, 2003.

            1.      Applicants must be: (1) Employees of the Postal Service who are on the rolls at the time of the disaster causing their loss. Or (2) Retired postal employees as exhibited by PS Form 50 (Notice of Personnel Action) and are a victim of a specified disaster on or after December 18, 2003.

            2.      Content and structural losses must be suffered directly by the requesting postal employee and/or the employee’s spouse. Content loss of family members who reside in the same household owned or rented by the postal employee may be included. Only personal property items and structural damage that are not fully covered by insurance, replacement warranty or other relief payments will be considered. Only one request for relief will be considered per family residing in the same principal place of residence, regardless of the number of eligible persons residing in a household.

            3.      Based on value at time of loss, covered items eligible for reimbursement shall include principal dwelling and/or garage, motor vehicles, and content items such as but not limited to; household appliances, furniture, fixtures, window treatments and linens, clothing, food, toiletries and medicine and other day-to-day living items deemed reasonable as per the PERF Executive Committee Guidelines.

            4.      In those instances where insurance covers partial reimbursement for any of the above, the balance of loss is considered the amount after insurance and other relief grants have been paid.  

            5.      PERF is intended to assist postal employees in replacing personal items relied on for day-to-day living.  The following types of personal property will be excluded from the PERF applicant’s balance of loss and will not be considered in the PERF relief grant calculation:  Decks, landscaping, pools, fencing, docks, bridges, recreational vehicles (e.g. dirt bikes, RV’s, jet-skis, boats, etc.) or recreational personal items (e.g. bars, pool/game tables, outdoor furniture, golf clubs, fishing gear/tackle, etc.) and weapons,  luxury items, memorabilia, hobby and decorative items and collections (e.g. furs, jewelry, china, antiques, stamps, coins, etc.)

            6.         Those applicants who were eligible to apply for FEMA assistance as a result of a “declared” disaster and who did not apply will be subject to a $5,000 reduction from their balance of loss.

 

(Adopted by PERF Executive Committee 6/21/06)