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 |
