The end of a calendar year is a popular time for federal employees to retire. This past year was no different as evidenced by the latest retirement data from OPM.
The Office of Personnel Management released its monthly retirement processing status report today, and the figures showed a surge in the backlog of outstanding claims due to an influx of new claims received in January.
The backlog of outstanding claims surged by a whopping 94%, going from 11,669 to 22,636 in January. The increase was due to 18,629 new claims received in January. The number received this January was 7% more than received in January 2014.
Out of the 18,629 claims received, OPM processed 7,662. While this was nowhere near the number actually received, it was 1,215 more than were processed the month before.
The backlog of outstanding claims is now higher than where OPM had projected it to be at the end of January. OPM had projected its inventory to stand at 21,642, so the 22,636 is 4.6% higher than expected.
The complete set of statistics is included below.
| Month | Projected Inventory | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory | % Processed in 60 days or less |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-13 | 19,142 | 7,484 | 11,027 | 14,176 | n/a |
| Nov-13 | 16,042 | 5,672 | 5,714 | 14,134 | n/a |
| Dec-13 | 12,942 | 4,952 | 6,449 | 12,637 | n/a |
| Jan-14 | 23,242 | 17,383 | 8,724 | 21,296 | n/a |
| Feb-14 | 23,642 | 12,025 | 9,767 | 23,554 | n/a |
| Mar-14 | 19,642 | 6,831 | 11,812 | 18,573 | n/a |
| Apr-14 | 16,842 | 8,047 | 10,002 | 16,618 | n/a |
| May-14 | 14,642 | 8,431 | 10,498 | 14,551 | 76.6% |
| Jun-14 | 14,542 | 6,627 | 8,787 | 12,391 | 77.3% |
| Jul-14 | 14,442 | 9,101 | 7,872 | 13,620 | 77.9% |
| Aug-14 | 13,842 | 6,795 | 7,318 | 13,097 | 78.5% |
| Sep-14 | 13,142 | 6,350 | 6,680 | 12,767 | 78.8% |
| Oct-14 | 12,442 | 10,155 | 8,785 | 14,137 | 83.2% |
| Nov-14 | 12,242 | 5,746 | 5,844 | 14,039 | 83.4% |
| Dec-14 | 11,342 | 4,077 | 6,447 | 11,669 | 83.7% |
| Jan-15 | 21,642 | 18,629 | 7,662 | 22,636 | 80.2% |
