Despite More Incoming Claims, OPM Retirement Backlog Reduced in August

OPM’s retirement backlog saw a noticeable improvement in August versus July despite more incoming claims.

FedSmith.com author Ian SmithBy Categories Federal Employee Retirement Leave a comment

Even though the Office of Personnel Management received more retirement applications in August than it did in July, it still managed to make a slight reduction in the backlog last month.

The total backlog went from 18,334 to 17,513, a reduction of 4.5%. In July, the backlog had actually increased slightly despite far fewer new applications arriving in July than in August. OPM’s stated goal for the backlog is 13,000, a level it has not seen since 2015.

OPM was able to process 9,647 claims in August but received only 8,826. It took 56 days on average for OPM to process each one.

The usual trend is for the backlog to gradually reduce in size during the autumn months with fewer new claims coming in only to then see a sharp increase in January and February due to many federal employees retiring at the end of the calendar year. We shall soon see if this year follows past trends.

OPM Retirement Backlog Processing Status – August 2018

The latest data from OPM are included below.

Month Claims Received Claims Processed Inventory (Steady state goal is 13,000) Monthly Average Processing Time in Days FYTD Average Processing Time in Days
Oct-16 7,326 5,795 16,677 67 67
Nov-16 5,065 5,723 16,019 66 66
Dec-16 5,483 6,405 15,097 74 69
Jan-17 15,317 7,327 23,087 75 71
Feb-17 9,114 8,285 23,916 56 67
Mar-17 7,216 10,602 20,530 61 66
Apr-17 6,581 8,179 18,932 72 67
May-17 5,548 8,340 16,140 71 67
Jun-17 6,141 7,751 14,530 68 67
Jul-17 10,070 7,509 17,091 67 67
Aug-17 7,136 7,102 17,125 65 67
Sep-17 8,810 9,107 16,828 62 67
Oct-17 8,850 6,818 18,860 64 64
Nov-17 5,572 5,138 19,294 68 66
Dec-17 5,568 10,347 14,515 60 63
Jan-18 14,590 8,638 20,467 63 63
Feb-18 13,290 9,532 24,225 46 59
Mar-18 7,767 13,262 18,730 49 57
Apr-18 8,390 9,631 17,489 58 57
May-18 7,625 7,090 18,024 58 58
Jun-18 9,397 9,223 18,198 65 59
Jul-18 8,281 8,145 18,334 57 59
Aug-18 8,826 9,647 17,513 56 58

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About the Author

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He has over 20 years of combined experience in media and government services, having worked at two government contracting firms and an online news and web development company prior to his current role at FedSmith.

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