The Office of Personnel Management was able to make further reductions to its retirement claims backlog in June, bringing the outstanding backlog down to below 15,000 for the first time since June of 2016.
According to the latest report, the backlog went from 16,140 at the end of May to 14,530 at the end of June, a 10% reduction. The drop was due to 1,610 more claims than received during the month.
OPM also said that 62% of the retirement applications received in June were processed in 60 days or less and that it took 47 days on average to process a case in under 60 days.
Over the course of the last year, the backlog bottomed in June 2016 and then experienced a general upward trend thereafter with a particularly dramatic spike in January and February of this year. This is the typical pattern as many federal employees retire at the end of the calendar year. OPM considers its “steady state” inventory of backlogged claims to be 13,000, a number the backlog has not been at or below since December 2015.
The latest complete figures 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-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 |
| Oct-16 | 7,326 | 5,795 | 16,677 | 49 | 91 |
| Nov-16 | 5,065 | 5,723 | 16,019 | 48 | 94 |
| Dec-16 | 5,483 | 6,405 | 15,097 | 52 | 95 |
| Jan-17 | 15,317 | 7,327 | 23,087 | 53 | 89 |
| Feb-17 | 9,114 | 8,285 | 23,916 | 38 | 104 |
| Mar-17 | 7,216 | 10,602 | 20,530 | 38 | 105 |
| Apr-17 | 6,581 | 8,179 | 18,932 | 51 | 80 |
| May-17 | 5,548 | 8,340 | 16,140 | 48 | 89 |
| Jun-17 | 6,141 | 7,751 | 14,530 | 47 | 99 |
