The Office of Personnel Management has released its monthly retirement application processing statistics, and the news is not good for recently retired federal employees who may be hoping for an expeditious handling of their retirement application.
The data show that the outstanding backlog of retirement claims grew by just over 13% in July, going from 14,511 at the end of June to 16,455 at the end of July.
This has to be an ongoing frustration for the agency since it seems OPM will take one step forward and then two steps backwards in its progress with reducing the backlog of claims. In May for example, OPM was able to reduce the backlog by almost 16% only to see it grow again this past month.
The backlog growth was due to an influx of 9,862 new claims received during the month of July. Of the new ones received, OPM was able to process 7,918, slightly more than were processed in June but still not enough to stop the backlog from growing considerably.
OPM had estimated that the backlog would stand at 11,442 at the end of July, so it missed that mark by about 44%. However, it had only anticipated receiving 8,000 new claims in July.
July 2014 was also a big month for receiving new retirement applications. 9,101 were received at the same time last year, however, the backlog at that time stood at 13,620, so it is now 21% higher a year later.
Have you retired recently? How has the application process been for you? Share your experiences in the comments below.
The latest complete statistics are included below.
| Month | Projected Claims Received | Projected Claims Processed | Projected Inventory | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory | % Processed in 60 days or less (TYD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-13 | 8,400 | 11,500 | 19,142 | 7,484 | 11,027 | 14,176 | |
| Nov-13 | 8,400 | 11,500 | 16,042 | 5,672 | 5,714 | 14,134 | |
| Dec-13 | 8,400 | 11,500 | 12,942 | 4,952 | 6,449 | 12,637 | |
| Jan-14 | 19,000 | 8,700 | 23,242 | 17,383 | 8,724 | 21,296 | |
| Feb-14 | 9,800 | 9,400 | 23,642 | 12,025 | 9,767 | 23,554 | |
| Mar-14 | 6,400 | 10,400 | 19,642 | 6,831 | 11,812 | 18,573 | |
| Apr-14 | 6,500 | 9,300 | 16,842 | 8,047 | 10,002 | 16,618 | |
| 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 | 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 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Sep-15 | 7,300 | 7,500 | 11,042 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
