Retirement Backlog Drops by 12% in April

OPM was able to get the retirement backlog back below 20,000 for the first time since December.

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.

MonthClaims ReceivedClaims ProcessedInventory (Steady state goal is 13,000)Monthly Average Processing Time in DaysFYTD Average Processing Time in Days
Oct-178,8506,81818,8606464
Nov-175,5725,13819,2946866
Dec-175,56810,34714,5156063
Jan-1814,5908,63820,4676363
Feb-1813,2909,53224,2254659
Mar-187,76713,26218,7304957
Apr-188,3909,63117,4895857
May-187,6257,09018,0245858
Jun-189,3979,22318,1986559
Jul-188,2818,14518,3345759
Aug-188,8269,64717,5135658
Sep-187,1427,02717,6286459
Oct-189,0126,91119,7296363
Nov-187,5108,07719,1626162
Dec-185,7826,92518,0196061
Jan-1913,2648,16223,1215860
Feb-1910,79210,54323,3705857
Mar-1910,04813,21720,2015055
Apr-196,9939,39217,8025655

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.