The Office of Personnel Management made a very slight improvement in the number of outstanding retirement applications in its retirement backlog in September.
The total number of backlogged claims went from 16,334 at the end of August to 15,146 to end September, a 7.27% decline. While this is a step in the right direction, OPM has not seen a backlog under 10,000 in over two years. The data in the latest report show the backlog has been comfortably over the 10k mark since at least October 2014.
OPM was able to process 8,134 claims in September, a 35% improvement over August. Despite slightly more new claims coming in during September, the number processed is what helped get the backlog below the 16k mark.
As the calendar year begins to draw to a close, the backlog will hopefully continue to dwindle downwards since January and February are always months which see a massive influx of new retirement applications. Last January for example, OPM’s backlog jumped 73%, and the total number in the backlog still has a ways to go before it gets down to the level where it stood at the end of last December.
The latest complete statistics are included below.
| Month | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory (Steady state is 13,000) | 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 | 36 | 104 |
| Nov-14 | 5,746 | 5,844 | 14,039 | 37 | 107 |
| Dec-14 | 4,077 | 6,447 | 11,669 | 45 | 99 |
| Jan-15 | 18,629 | 7,662 | 22,636 | 43 | 91 |
| Feb-15 | 9,219 | 7,841 | 24,014 | 33 | 103 |
| Mar-15 | 5,478 | 8,898 | 20,594 | 46 | 99 |
| Apr-15 | 6,292 | 8,660 | 18,226 | 49 | 74 |
| May-15 | 7,845 | 10,697 | 15,374 | 47 | 79 |
| Jun-15 | 6,920 | 7,783 | 14,511 | 44 | 99 |
| Jul-15 | 9,862 | 7,918 | 16,455 | 45 | 97 |
| Aug-15 | 7,341 | 7,446 | 16,350 | 45 | 98 |
| Sep-15 | 6,300 | 7,944 | 14,706 | 43 | 94 |
| Oct-15 | 8,374 | 10,438 | 12,642 | 38 | 86 |
| Nov-15 | 6,019 | 6,099 | 12,562 | 37 | 98 |
| Dec-15 | 4,753 | 5,916 | 11,399 | 40 | 104 |
| Jan-16 | 15,423 | 7,061 | 19,761 | 38 | 94 |
| Feb-16 | 11,293 | 8,362 | 22,692 | 36 | 96 |
| Mar-16 | 5,741 | 9,222 | 19,211 | 44 | 118 |
| Apr-16 | 7,241 | 11,935 | 14,517 | 50 | 92 |
| May-16 | 7,210 | 7,692 | 14,035 | 37 | 103 |
| Jun-16 | 5,929 | 6,435 | 13,529 | 37 | 115 |
| Jul-16 | 9,238 | 7,205 | 15,562 | 38 | 110 |
| Aug-16 | 6,818 | 6,046 | 16,334 | 42 | 112 |
| Sep-16 | 6,946 | 8,134 | 15,146 | 45 | 100 |
