The Office of Personnel Management was able to process far more retirement claims than it received last month, bringing the outstanding backlog down by 24%.
At the end of March, the backlog stood at 19,211 claims, but as of the end of April, it now sits at 14,517 thanks to OPM processing 11,935 claims last month. Also adding to the progress was the fact that only 7,241 new claims were received, although this was nearly 1,500 more than the number of new claims in March (5,741).
OPM hasn’t been able to get the backlog under 10,000 in the last 2 years; it stood at 11,669 at the end of December 2014 and 11,399 in December 2015.
Will this year be different? That depends, of course, on how many come in over the next few months, but if the progress of April can carry forward, it will help to continue to chip away at the backlogged inventory.
The latest complete figures are included below.
| Month | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory | % Processed in 60 days or less (YTD) | % Processed in 60 days or less (Monthly) | Avg. # of Days to Process Case in 60 days or less | Avg. # of Days to Process Case in more than 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-14 | 10,155 | 8,785 | 14,137 | 83% | 83% | 36 | 104 |
| Nov-14 | 5,746 | 5,844 | 14,039 | 83% | 84% | 37 | 107 |
| Dec-14 | 4,077 | 6,447 | 11,669 | 84% | 84% | 45 | 99 |
| Jan-15 | 18,629 | 7,662 | 22,636 | 80% | 71% | 43 | 91 |
| Feb-15 | 9,219 | 7,841 | 24,014 | 81% | 82% | 33 | 103 |
| Mar-15 | 5,478 | 8,898 | 20,594 | 82% | 86% | 46 | 99 |
| Apr-15 | 6,292 | 8,660 | 18,226 | 73% | 26% | 49 | 74 |
| May-15 | 7,845 | 10,697 | 15,374 | 68% | 45% | 47 | 79 |
| Jun-15 | 6,920 | 7,783 | 14,511 | 69% | 75% | 44 | 99 |
| Jul-15 | 9,862 | 7,918 | 16,455 | 69% | 72% | 45 | 97 |
| Aug-15 | 7,341 | 7,446 | 16,350 | 70% | 76% | 45 | 98 |
| Sep-15 | 6,300 | 7,944 | 14,706 | 70% | 76% | 43 | 94 |
| Oct-15 | 8,374 | 10,438 | 12,642 | 74% | 74% | 38 | 86 |
| Nov-15 | 6,019 | 6,099 | 12,562 | 76% | 82% | 37 | 98 |
| Dec-15 | 4,753 | 5,916 | 11,399 | 78% | 83% | 40 | 104 |
| Jan-16 | 15,423 | 7,061 | 19,761 | 79% | 80% | 38 | 94 |
| Feb-16 | 11,293 | 8,362 | 22,692 | 80% | 85% | 36 | 96 |
| Mar-16 | 5,741 | 9,222 | 19,211 | 82% | 88% | 44 | 118 |
| Apr-16 | 7,241 | 11,935 | 14,517 | 80% | 76% | 50 | 92 |
