The OPM retirement backlog was further reduced in April, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous two months. Some significant milestones have also recently been achieved in the ongoing efforts to modernize OPM’s antiquated retirement processing system.
The Office of Personnel Management cut the backlog down to 16,173 at the end of April from 16,794 at the end of March, a reduction of 3.7% (621 claims).
8,332 new retirement claims came in during April which was 6.8% more than in March. However, more claims were processed in March than in April. OPM processed 8,953 retirement claims in April and the monthly average processing time was 49 days.
According to OPM’s Retirement Quick Guide, it will take new federal retirees 3-5 months to receive their first full annuity payment per current estimates.
DOGE and OPM Working to Modernize the Retirement Processing System
The numbers above show that processing federal employees’ retirement applications is a slow process. However, efforts are underway to modernize the retirement processing system, and some important steps have recently been taken as part of this process.
The retirement application processing can take months, sometimes even exceeding a year. In fact, FedSmith has received comments from some of our readers in the past who said they had to wait for over a year to receive their full retirement annuity payments.
OPM currently processes retirement applications by hand which is reliant on paper files stored in a mine near Boyers, PA, and this antiquated process is the key component of the persistent backlog of retirement claims that are always present at the agency.
OPM has begun using artificial intelligence (AI) to clean up its electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF) as an important initial step in the modernization process. Fox News reported that the AI system has been tested to 100% accuracy in a test environment, but in order to move to using real data, OPM had to first file a Privacy Impact Assessment as part of the process which it did in early April.
OPM does not intend to use the AI system to digitize the files stored in the mine, but it would ensure that no new paper files were added to it. Use of this system could mean that a federal employee’s retirement application is processed and approved in less than one second.
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia recently told Fox News that he was working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to modernize the retirement processing system by turning it into “an online digital process that will take just a few days at most” to process federal employees’ retirement applications.
On February 27, OPM announced that for the first time, it successfully processed a federal employee’s retirement completely digitally without using any paper in less than a week.
On May 2, Gebbia announced that multiple federal employees had recently retired using a fully online process. He wrote in a post on X:
For the first time in US Gov history, 25 people are retiring online only, to inform scaling to everyone. This is a big win for retirees to get their full check faster, and testament to how quickly @USOPM is working towards the President’s software modernization Exec Order.
Elon Musk added in a follow-up post:
The paper-based government retirement system currently in place takes up to 8 months to process and often undercounts retirement pay.
The new, fully electronic system being tested now is instant and accurate, thanks to @jgebbia and the @DOGE team.
OPM also recently announced that its personalized Retirement Booklets are now available online as digital downloads through the retirement services online portal. This 18-month initiative now provides original and updated versions of the booklets for retirees and survivors which will help eliminate the delays associated with requesting printed copies by phone and also reduce agency printing costs.
The modernization initiative seems to be moving along quickly, and federal employees may soon find that the retirement process is available to them fully online and takes a few days at most instead of months.
OPM Retirement Processing Status: April 2025
| 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-23 | 6,924 | 6,098 | 16,678 | 73 | 73 |
| Nov-23 | 5,207 | 6,059 | 15,826 | 66 | 69 |
| Dec-23 | 5,662 | 7,196 | 14,292 | 68 | 69 |
| Jan-24 | 12,997 | 6,467 | 20,822 | 66 | 68 |
| Feb-24 | 8,794 | 10,025 | 19,591 | 47 | 62 |
| Mar-24 | 7,943 | 10,711 | 16,823 | 55 | 61 |
| Apr-24 | 6,901 | 7,647 | 16,077 | 61 | 61 |
| May-24 | 6,751 | 8,793 | 14,035 | 60 | 61 |
| Jun-24 | 6,919 | 5,614 | 15,340 | 64 | 61 |
| Jul-24 | 6,451 | 5,994 | 15,797 | 65 | 61 |
| Aug-24 | 7,083 | 7,702 | 15,178 | 64 | 61 |
| Sep-24 | 5,618 | 6,302 | 14,494 | 63 | 62 |
| Oct-24 | 6,872 | 6,458 | 14,908 | 62 | 62 |
| Nov-24 | 6,808 | 7,872 | 13,844 | 55 | 58 |
| Dec-24 | 5,020 | 4,988 | 13,876 | 57 | 58 |
| Jan-25 | 16,101 | 6,700 | 23,277 | 64 | 60 |
| Feb-25 | 9,637 | 12,364 | 20,550 | 44 | 55 |
| Mar-25 | 7,803 | 11,559 | 16,794 | 50 | 54 |
| *Apr-25 | 8,332 | 8,953 | 16,173 | 49 | 53 |
Disability determinations are included in the pending number after approval. Average
Processing Time in Days represents the number of days starting when OPM receives the
retirement application through final adjudication.
*Initial retirement cases produced in less than 60 days, on average took 31 days to
complete; whereas cases that were produced in more than 60 days, on average, took 110
days to complete.
