The Office of Personnel Management was able to process more retirement claims than it took in last month to cut the outstanding backlog by just over 9% to close out the year.
OPM received 4,753 new claims but processed 5,916 in December to bring the backlog down to 11,399. It had projected the backlog would stand at 9,242, so it missed that mark.
The backlog at this time last year was almost the same as it is today (11,669 last year versus 11,399 today).
It’s a good thing OPM was able to make some headway in December since January is historically a month which sees a ton of new retirement applications pouring in, inevitably pushing the backlog higher and causing OPM to forego any progress it has made throughout the previous year in getting caught up.
Last January, the number of backlogged claims nearly doubled thanks to almost 19,000 new claims coming in during January 2015.
Will this year be any different? We won’t know until the next report comes out, but if you plan to retire this month, be prepared to experience potential delays in the near-term when dealing with OPM on your retirement application.
FedSmith.com will continue to keep you advised of OPM’s progress on working through its retirement backlog.
The latest complete statistics from OPM are included below.
| Month | Projected Claims Received | Projected Claims Processed | Projected Inventory | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory | % Processed in 60 days or less (YTD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-14 | 7,800 | 8,500 | 12,442 | 10,155 | 8,785 | 14,137 | 83.2% |
| Nov-14 | 7,600 | 7,800 | 12,242 | 5,746 | 5,844 | 14,039 | 83.4% |
| Dec-14 | 5,600 | 6,500 | 11,342 | 4,077 | 6,447 | 11,669 | 83.7% |
| Jan-15 | 19,000 | 8,700 | 21,642 | 18,629 | 7,662 | 22,636 | 80.2% |
| Feb-15 | 9,700 | 9,800 | 21,542 | 9,219 | 7,841 | 24,014 | 80.6% |
| Mar-15 | 6,400 | 11,000 | 16,942 | 5,478 | 8,898 | 20,594 | 81.6% |
| Apr-15 | 6,700 | 9,600 | 14,042 | 6,292 | 8,660 | 18,226 | 72.6% |
| May-15 | 7,100 | 9,100 | 12,042 | 7,845 | 10,697 | 15,374 | 68.0% |
| Jun-15 | 7,500 | 8,000 | 11,542 | 6,920 | 7,783 | 14,511 | 68.7% |
| Jul-15 | 8,000 | 8,100 | 11,442 | 9,862 | 7,918 | 16,455 | 69.0% |
| Aug-15 | 7,400 | 7,600 | 11,242 | 7,341 | 7,446 | 16,350 | 69.6% |
| Sep-15 | 7,300 | 7,500 | 11,042 | 6,300 | 7,944 | 14,706 | 70.1% |
| Oct-15 | 7,800 | 8,500 | 10,342 | 8,374 | 10,438 | 12,642 | 73.5% |
| Nov-15 | 7,600 | 7,800 | 10,142 | 6,019 | 6,099 | 12,562 | 76.4% |
| Dec-15 | 5,600 | 6,500 | 9,242 | 4,753 | 5,916 | 11,399 | 78.1% |
