The Office of Personnel Management has released its latest report on the status of processing federal employees’ retirement applications. The latest figures show that the backlog has come down slightly as of the end of March.
OPM received 5,478 new claims in March and was able to process 8,898, bringing the total backlog down to 20,594 from 24,014 the month before.
However, OPM had projected that it would have a backlog of 16,942 claims and that it would process 11,000 claims in March, so it is running behind its own projections.
OPM received a surge of new claims in January in February (18,629 and 9,219, respectively) which more than doubled the backlog in the first part of 2015, so the numbers indicate that it is still struggling to recover from the flood of new applications.
The complete retirement processing status report is included below.
| Month | Projected Claims Received | Projected Claims Processed | Projected Inventory | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory | % Processed in 60 days or less |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-13 | 8,400 | 11,500 | 19,142 | 7,484 | 11,027 | 14,176 | n/a |
| Nov-13 | 8,400 | 11,500 | 16,042 | 5,672 | 5,714 | 14,134 | n/a |
| Dec-13 | 8,400 | 11,500 | 12,942 | 4,952 | 6,449 | 12,637 | n/a |
| Jan-14 | 19,000 | 8,700 | 23,242 | 17,383 | 8,724 | 21,296 | n/a |
| Feb-14 | 9,800 | 9,400 | 23,642 | 12,025 | 9,767 | 23,554 | n/a |
| Mar-14 | 6,400 | 10,400 | 19,642 | 6,831 | 11,812 | 18,573 | n/a |
| Apr-14 | 6,500 | 9,300 | 16,842 | 8,047 | 10,002 | 16,618 | n/a |
| May-14 | 6,800 | 9,000 | 14,642 | 8,431 | 10,498 | 14,551 | 76.6% |
| Jun-14 | 8,000 | 8,100 | 14,542 | 6,627 | 8,787 | 12,391 | 77.3% |
| Jul-14 | 8,000 | 8,100 | 14,442 | 9,101 | 7,872 | 13,620 | 77.9% |
| Aug-14 | 7,400 | 8,000 | 13,842 | 6,795 | 7,318 | 13,097 | 78.5% |
| Sep-14 | 7,300 | 8,000 | 13,142 | 6,350 | 6,680 | 12,767 | 78.8% |
| 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 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| May-15 | 7,100 | 9,100 | 12,042 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Jun-15 | 7,500 | 8,000 | 11,542 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Jul-15 | 8,000 | 8,100 | 11,442 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Aug-15 | 7,400 | 7,600 | 11,242 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Sep-15 | 7,300 | 7,500 | 11,042 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
