OPM’s Retirement Applications Backlog Remains Nearly Unchanged in August

According to the latest available data from the Office of Personnel Management, the agency’s outstanding backlog of retirement applications was left relatively unchanged over the last month.

The Office of Personnel Management’s backlog of retirement applications stayed relatively flat in August according to the agency’s latest retirement process status report.

OPM received 7,341 new claims in August and was able to process 7,446 claims which brought the backlog down from 16,455 to 16,350, a less than 1% decrease.

Despite the modest gain, OPM is running well behind its own estimates with respect to the outstanding backlog as of the end of August. It had projected that the backlog would be at 11,242, so the actual figure misses that by a whopping 45% even though the number of claims received and processed were right in line with agency projections for the month.

Also, the backlog in last August stood at 13,097 (right in line with where OPM projected it would be), so it has gone up by about 25% in the last year due to the influx if incoming claims, particularly in October 2014 and January 2015.

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 (YTD)
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 7,341 7,446 16,350 69.6%
Sep-15 7,300 7,500 11,042

 

About the Author

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He has over 20 years of combined experience in media and government services, having worked at two government contracting firms and an online news and web development company prior to his current role at FedSmith.