Natural Disaster Relief

The Postal Employees Relief Fund (PERF) provides financial assistance for APWU members as well as other postal employees and retirees whose homes and property have been substantially damaged by natural disasters and home fires if the employees are not reimbursed by insurance or grants. Supported and administered by all employee unions and the Postal Service, PERF is a tax-exempt charitable organization that is funded through donations from federal employees. APWU encourages its members to support PERF by making charitable contributions to the fund through the Combined Federal Campaign, the government's annual workplace charity drive. (Use designation #10268.)

Each postal district is allotted a six-week period annually between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 to solicit contributions. (Please contact your USPS District to find out when your CFC campaign will take place.) New PERF brochures, posters and DVD’s are available to APWU local and state organizations to distribute during their district's Combined Federal Campaign season. These items can be obtained in limited quantities at no charge while supplies last, through the APWU Secretary-Treasurer Department (202-842-4215). Allow two weeks for delivery.

Since its establishment in 1990, PERF has provided more than 3,000 grants totaling nearly $15 million to active and retired postal employees impacted by hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires and home fires. To learn more about eligibility for assistance or to obtain an application, please visit www.postalrelief.com, or write to:

Postal Employees Relief Fund, P.O. Box 41220, Fredericksburg, VA 22404-1220.

APWU members who need assistance with PERF should contact the union's Secretary-Treasurer Department.

Please note that inquiries regarding the status of your application or relief grant must be addressed directly to PERF.

If you have questions regarding PERF, please email perf@apwu.org. 

The APWU would like to be able to generously help all our members who are in distress; the APWU Disaster/Hardship Relief Fund has limited resources. The payments of $500 to $2500, depending on the balance of the loss after insurance and other relief payments are received.

In order to apply for assistance the APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund, the APWU member who is a victim of a natural disaster, medical condition, or other catastrophic event should submit their application for a relief grant alone with all requested supporting documentation to the APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund: APWU Secretary-Treasurer, 1300 L Street NW, Washington DC 20005.

The APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund coordinates with the Postal Employee’s Relief Fund (PERF). So once you receive a decision from PERF, you would be required to submit that decision to the APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund to complete your application for aid. The APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund Committee would then review that decision along with your previously submitted file and make a recommendation to the President of APWU. Based on the President’s recommendation, the National Executive Board of APWU authorizes payments out of the Disaster/Hardship Fund.

The APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund application and the Postal Employees Relief Fund application are below in the "Resources" section. For your convenience these applications may be photocopied. Only the APWU Disaster/Hardship Fund application is submitted to the APWU Secretary-Treasurer Department at the address mentioned above. The Postal Employees’ Relief Fund application must be submitted to P.O. Box 41220, Fredericksburg, VA 22404-1220 for review and processing.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, can also be a valuable source of information and assistance for people coping with the effects of natural disasters. FEMA's mission statement is "helping people before, during, and after disasters." To see if your area has been declared a for Individual Assistance, click here. 

Benefits.Gov is the official benefits website of the U.S. government, whose mission is to increase citizen access to benefit information, while reducing the expense and difficulty of interacting with the government. Prior to Benefits.gov, citizens looking for government benefit information had to search through a complicated maze of web pages.

There was no easy-to-use, single source of benefit information to help citizens understand which benefit programs they may be eligible for, or how to apply. Operated, managed, and supported by a Federal agency partnership, Benefits.gov provides an innovative, technology-based solution to benefit information delivery.

Today, millions of citizens have easy, online access to information from across multiple Federal agencies on Benefits.gov.

To search for Natural Disaster resources that may be available to you, click here.

If you are a union member who participates in certain Union Plus programs, you may be eligible for assistance through the Union Plus Disaster Relief Grant program.