A group of House Republicans are concerned that the Office of Personnel Management is not processing the retirement paperwork for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials quickly enough, and they are asking OPM for answers.
OPM Retirement Backlog and Retirement Processing Delays
Federal employees who read FedSmith are undoubtedly aware of the OPM retirement backlog and the delays that tend to accompany getting one’s retirement application processed. As of the latest report on the retirement backlog, there are now 25,227 outstanding retirement applications which is actually a significant improvement over September when there were 26,642, or for that matter, earlier this spring when there were over 36,000 pending applications.
According to OPM, the typical federal employee’s retirement application takes about 60 days to process. OPM says on its website:
It takes around 60 days (2 months) to process applications for common cases.
Your application could take longer if:
- We need additional information from you or your former employing agency
- Your retirement claim has special circumstances, like applying under disability provisions, a specific retirement law (LEO, FF, or ATC), or evaluating a court order
- We need to contact you to make a benefit election, like a service credit deposit
- We need to contact another agency, like the Social Security Administration, if a benefit from them impacts your claim
Comments from our readers indicate that they are often frustrated with delays that they encounter in waiting for their retirement applications to be completed. These are some of the comments our readers have made recently in regards to waiting on their retirement paperwork to be completed:
- I submitted my retirement application the first week of January 2022. OPM said I might hear from them in October. I still haven’t heard from them as of 7 September 2022.
- I retired on December 31, 2021 and have yet to receive my back pay or full monthly retirement payments. It’s been over eight months, so I’ve enlisted the help of my local congressman.
- I retired June 30, 2021 and I am still waiting for OPM to finalize my retirement. Per OPM they are still awaiting payroll info from NFC. They have requested the records from NFC 6 times without a response. OPM say [sic] they can’t force NFC to produce the records and they can’t finalize my retirement until they are received. I’ve talked to the help desk monthly and receive the same story every time. So May of this year I too went the way of getting congressional help and they have been powerless to push OPM.
A Common Cause for Retirement Processing Delays
A common reason for delays in getting a federal employee’s retirement application processed is because of errors in the application paperwork. These can include things such as missing signatures or forms. These are some of the most common errors that OPM encounters on retirement applications.
Customs and Border Protection is a part of the Department of Homeland Security. In a recent report, OPM said that these are the numbers of retirement applications in the last six months from DHS that contain errors. The report does not break out how many of these (if any) are for CBP, but it does offer some perspective on how many applications OPM gets that contain errors which is likely to lead to processing delays.
| Month | Total Cases | Total Cases with Errors | % with Errors |
| May 2022 | 381 | 110 | 29% |
| June 2022 | 280 | 81 | 29% |
| July 2022 | 332 | 126 | 38% |
| August 2022 | 457 | 178 | 39% |
| September 2022 | 387 | 147 | 38% |
| October 2022 | 349 | 132 | 38% |
Congress Getting Involved With CBP Retirement Processing Delays
As bad as the retirement processing delays can apparently be for some new federal retirees, the delays have reportedly been even worse for former federal employees who worked for CBP, so much so that the group of House lawmakers have gotten involved. They sent a letter to OPM director Kiran Ahuja to ask what is being done about the problem.
In their letter, the lawmakers state:
While the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) website indicates that federal employee retirement processing takes around 60 days, in a recent briefing to the House Oversight and Reform Committee OPM staff indicated that retirement processing times across the federal government average between 88 and 90 days. However, recent CBP retirees have reported waiting as long as 13 months for OPM to process retirement paperwork and begin payments of full monthly annuities.
The letter adds that in some cases, former CBP employees get a partial interim annuity payment that is as little as 11% of their full annuity payment, and others are getting 50% interim annuity payments “while they waited months for processing.”
The lawmakers stated that their efforts to help their constituents with the problem “have been met with silence by OPM.”
The letter goes on to ask the OPM director for answers to several questions:
- What is the current processing time for CBP retirement paperwork?
- What was the average processing time for CBP retirement paperwork prior to March of 2020?
- What was the average processing time for CBP retirement paperwork from March of 2020 through May of 2021, when CBP’s webpage was last updated?
- How does the processing time for individuals retiring from supervisory positions compare to those who served in non-supervisory positions?
- What is the current backlog of unprocessed retirement paperwork for CBP employees?
- What factors have contributed to the increased processing delays?
- Has OPM resumed full in-person staffing levels at OPM’s Retirement Operations Centerin Boyers, PA?
- If not, when will OPM resume full in-person staffing levels at the site?
- What steps is OPM taking to expedite processing of retirement paperwork for CBP retirees?
- Why does OPM issue partial annuity payments instead of full annuity payments?
- What factors are considered when OPM determines amounts for partial annuitypayments for CBP retirees?
- What steps will OPM take to improve responsiveness to congressional casework inquiries?
- Please provide a breakdown of current retirement paperwork processing times government wide, broken down by employing agency.
The full text of the letter is included below.
Have you recently retired from federal service? What was your overall experience like? Did you experience delays? Were there things that helped or hindered the process? What did you learn from it and what could have been done differently? Please share your experience in the comments at the end of the article. Your story can help other readers who may be running into problems with their retirement applications.
Letter From House Republicans to OPM Director About CBP Retirement Processing Delays
November 1, 2022
The Honorable Kiran Ahuja
Director
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
1900 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20415-1000
Director Ahuja,
We have received reports of unacceptable delays in the processing of retirement paperwork for retirees from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These delays have resulted in months of uncertainty and financial hardship for some of America’s finest, many of whom spent decades putting their lives on the line to keep their fellow citizens safe.
While the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) website indicates that federal employee retirement processing takes around 60 days1, in a recent briefing to the House Oversight and Reform Committee OPM staff indicated that retirement processing times across the federal government average between 88 and 90 days. However, recent CBP retirees have reported waiting as long as 13 months for OPM to process retirement paperwork and begin payments of full monthly annuities. Although these retirees receive a partial annuity payment during processing and are paid a lump sum catchup payment once paperwork is completed, the uncertainly surrounding delays and around how partial annuity payments are calculated makes it impossible for individuals to plan for retirement. Retired agents have reported receiving annuities as low as 11% of the total they were entitled to, with others receiving closer to 50% of their full annuity while they waited months for processing. These challenges are compounded by the fact that Americans are dealing with historic levels of inflation, exacerbated by this Administration’s policies.
Efforts by our offices to assist constituents experiencing these challenges have been met with silence by OPM. Efforts to reach OPM congressional liaisons by phone and by email have gone unanswered, and the OPM congressional portal provides congressional staff with no information about the status of cases submitted.
Federal employees, especially those who have risked their lives for this country, deserve better. Please provide answers to the following questions by November 30, 2022.
- What is the current processing time for CBP retirement paperwork?
- What was the average processing time for CBP retirement paperwork prior to March of 2020?
- What was the average processing time for CBP retirement paperwork from March of 2020 through May of 2021, when CBP’s webpage was last updated?
- How does the processing time for individuals retiring from supervisory positions compare to those who served in non-supervisory positions?
- What is the current backlog of unprocessed retirement paperwork for CBP employees?
- What factors have contributed to the increased processing delays?
- Has OPM resumed full in-person staffing levels at OPM’s Retirement Operations Center
in Boyers, PA?- If not, when will OPM resume full in-person staffing levels at the site?
- What steps is OPM taking to expedite processing of retirement paperwork for CBP retirees?
- Why does OPM issue partial annuity payments instead of full annuity payments?
- What factors are considered when OPM determines amounts for partial annuity
payments for CBP retirees? - What steps will OPM take to improve responsiveness to congressional casework
inquiries? - Please provide a breakdown of current retirement paperwork processing times
government wide, broken down by employing agency.
We look forward to your response to this inquiry.
Sincerely,
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA), Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX), Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Rep. Paul Gosar DDS (R-AZ), and Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA).
