The backlog of retirement applications at the Office of Personnel Management increased by 10% in October.
OPM received 7,326 new claims last month, a relatively average number based on past figures. However, OPM only processed 5,795 which caused the backlog to go up over 16,000, closer to where it stood in August.
OPM had been on a more rapid processing pace earlier in the year. In April for example, it processed almost 12,000 claims in one month.
The lowest the retirement backlog inventory has been this year was in June when it got down to 13,529. It’s been on an upward trend since then.
December is historically a slow month for incoming claims, however, this is normally the “calm before the storm” since January usually sees a massive spike in new retirement applications, inevitably pushing the backlog higher.
A recent report from OPM’s Office of Inspector General noted that customer service problems have hampered OPM’s retirement services office. These problems are not likely to help the backlog problem since the report noted that the department had its own “backlog” of sorts with numerous phone calls and inquiries from customers that were not getting addressed. For details, see Customer Service Problems Plague OPM’s Retirement Services.
The latest data for October are included below.
| Month | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory (Steady state is 13,000) | % Processed in 60 days or less (FYTD) | % Processed in 60 days or less (Monthly) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-15 | 8,374 | 10,438 | 12,642 | 74% | 74% |
| Nov-15 | 6,019 | 6,099 | 12,562 | 76% | 82% |
| Dec-15 | 4,753 | 5,916 | 11,399 | 78% | 83% |
| Jan-16 | 15,423 | 7,061 | 19,761 | 79% | 80% |
| Feb-16 | 11,293 | 8,362 | 22,692 | 80% | 85% |
| Mar-16 | 5,741 | 9,222 | 19,211 | 82% | 88% |
| Apr-16 | 7,241 | 11,935 | 14,517 | 80% | 76% |
| May-16 | 7,210 | 7,692 | 14,035 | 80% | 75% |
| Jun-16 | 5,929 | 6,435 | 13,529 | 79% | 75% |
| Jul-16 | 9,238 | 7,205 | 15,562 | 79% | 74% |
| Aug-16 | 6,818 | 6,046 | 16,334 | 78% | 72% |
| Sep-16 | 6,946 | 8,134 | 15,146 | 77% | 64% |
| Oct-16 | 7,326 | 5,795 | 16,677 | 58% | 58% |
