The Office of Personnel Management processed 10,438 retirement applications last month, a 31% increase over the previous month. Despite the improvement, there is still a large backlog of outstanding claims (12,642).
Along with the over 10,000 claims OPM processed in October, the agency only received 8,374 new applications, thus helping OPM to cut the backlog by 14%.
OPM beat its processing estimate for the month; it had projected it would process 8,500 claims. However, OPM also figured it would have an inventory of 10,342 backlogged claims so it missed that by 22%.
OPM also received more claims last month than it had anticipated, thus putting the reduction of the backlog into that much more of a positive light. The backlog of claims stood at 14,137 a year ago, so OPM is continuing to slowly make progress on pushing through the applications.
The last two months of the year have historically been months in which fewer new applications come in, so it will be interesting to see if OPM can continue to reduce the backlog to close out 2015 to get ready for the inevitable surge of new claims that usually comes in January.
The complete statistics are included below.
| Month | Projected Claims Received | Projected Claims Processed | Projected Inventory | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-14 | 7,800 | 8,500 | 12,442 | 10,155 | 8,785 | 14,137 |
| Nov-14 | 7,600 | 7,800 | 12,242 | 5,746 | 5,844 | 14,039 |
| Dec-14 | 5,600 | 6,500 | 11,342 | 4,077 | 6,447 | 11,669 |
| Jan-15 | 19,000 | 8,700 | 21,642 | 18,629 | 7,662 | 22,636 |
| Feb-15 | 9,700 | 9,800 | 21,542 | 9,219 | 7,841 | 24,014 |
| Mar-15 | 6,400 | 11,000 | 16,942 | 5,478 | 8,898 | 20,594 |
| Apr-15 | 6,700 | 9,600 | 14,042 | 6,292 | 8,660 | 18,226 |
| May-15 | 7,100 | 9,100 | 12,042 | 7,845 | 10,697 | 15,374 |
| Jun-15 | 7,500 | 8,000 | 11,542 | 6,920 | 7,783 | 14,511 |
| Jul-15 | 8,000 | 8,100 | 11,442 | 9,862 | 7,918 | 16,455 |
| Aug-15 | 7,400 | 7,600 | 11,242 | 7,341 | 7,446 | 16,350 |
| Sep-15 | 7,300 | 7,500 | 11,042 | 6,300 | 7,944 | 14,706 |
| Oct-15 | 7,800 | 8,500 | 10,342 | 8,374 | 10,438 | 12,642 |
| Nov-15 | 7,600 | 7,800 | 10,142 | |||
| Dec-15 | 5,600 | 6,500 | 9,242 |
