The Office of Personnel Management reduced the total number of outstanding retirement claims by 2,399 in April over the previous month, a reduction of about 12%.
OPM received 6,993 new claims in April but processed 9,392. The backlog had closed at just over 20,000 at the end of March after the surge of new retirees submitted their applications at the start of the year, however it’s now down to 17,802.
It took OPM 56 days on average to process the claims in April, up from 50 days in March. In March the agency also processed many more claims (13,217).
The total backlog is now almost exactly where it was this time last year. At the end of April 2018, it stood at 17,489.
The latest complete data 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-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 |
| Sep-18 | 7,142 | 7,027 | 17,628 | 64 | 59 |
| Oct-18 | 9,012 | 6,911 | 19,729 | 63 | 63 |
| Nov-18 | 7,510 | 8,077 | 19,162 | 61 | 62 |
| Dec-18 | 5,782 | 6,925 | 18,019 | 60 | 61 |
| Jan-19 | 13,264 | 8,162 | 23,121 | 58 | 60 |
| Feb-19 | 10,792 | 10,543 | 23,370 | 58 | 57 |
| Mar-19 | 10,048 | 13,217 | 20,201 | 50 | 55 |
| Apr-19 | 6,993 | 9,392 | 17,802 | 56 | 55 |
