The unusually high numbers of incoming retirement claims slowed down considerably at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in September according to the latest retirement processing statistics.
The OPM retirement backlog now stands at 23,552, down 3.3% over the previous month. This was because there were only 6,095 new claims received in September and OPM processed 7,902.
The backlog improved last month despite the monthly average processing time being 76 days, 6 days higher than in August.
Summer 2025 Retirement Surge
2025 saw an unusually high number of federal employees retiring compared to past years due to the Deferred Resignation Program, agencies offering VERAs, etc. This table shows how the numbers fared since 2020 from May to September.
| Year | Month | Claims Received | Claims Processed | Inventory |
| 2020 | May | 6,648 | 8,360 | 18,177 |
| June | 6,555 | 7,300 | 17,432 | |
| July | 6,819 | 6,620 | 17,631 | |
| Aug | 6,775 | 5,836 | 18,570 | |
| Sept | 6,244 | 6,540 | 18,274 | |
| 2021 | May | 7,684 | 8,451 | 24,619 |
| June | 7,264 | 6,884 | 24,999 | |
| July | 8,922 | 6,920 | 27,001 | |
| Aug | 8,976 | 7,412 | 28,565 | |
| Sept | 7,589 | 7,344 | 28,810 | |
| 2022 | May | 7,673 | 10,266 | 26,217 |
| June | 6,032 | 7,935 | 24,314 | |
| July | 9,487 | 10,706 | 23,095 | |
| Aug | 8,032 | 8,019 | 29,237 | |
| Sept | 8,086 | 10,681 | 26,642 | |
| 2023 | May | 6,096 | 8,355 | 18,125 |
| June | 4,854 | 6,609 | 16,370 | |
| July | 7,261 | 6,584 | 17,047 | |
| Aug | 7,383 | 6,467 | 17,963 | |
| Sept | 6,768 | 8,879 | 15,852 | |
| 2024 | May | 6,751 | 8,793 | 14,035 |
| June | 6,919 | 5,614 | 15,340 | |
| July | 6,451 | 5,994 | 15,797 | |
| Aug | 7,083 | 7,702 | 15,178 | |
| Sept | 5,618 | 6,302 | 14,494 | |
| 2025 | May | 15,048 | 9,739 | 21,483 |
| June | 13,430 | 8,585 | 26,328 | |
| July | 8,295 | 8,485 | 26,138 | |
| Aug | 9,416 | 11,195 | 24,359 | |
| Sept | 6,095 | 7,902 | 23,552 |
A closer look at the 2025 figures emphasizes how this summer has seen higher numbers of federal employees retiring.
These are the total number of retirement claims received from May to September each year since 2020:
| Year | Total Claims Received (May–Sep) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 33,041 |
| 2021 | 40,435 |
| 2022 | 39,310 |
| 2023 | 32,362 |
| 2024 | 32,822 |
| 2025 | 52,284 |
2025 saw a 59% increase over 2024 for the same period. This is the highest volume in at least six years, underscoring the unusual surge.
This table shows the month-to-month changes in incoming retirement claims starting in May.
| Month | Claims Received | % Change |
|---|---|---|
| May-25 | 15,048 | +80.6% |
| Jun-25 | 13,430 | −10.8% |
| Jul-25 | 8,295 | −38.3% |
| Aug-25 | 9,416 | +13.5% |
| Sep-25 | 6,095 | -35.3% |
May saw the highest number of retirement claims, nearly doubling the number received in April.
However, in September, incoming claims experienced a sharp decline, dropping by 35.3% compared to August. This marked the steepest monthly decline of the year.
OPM’s Claims Processing Pace
Despite the number of incoming retirement claims dropping off after June and even more so in September, OPM kept up its pace in processing claims.
The table below shows the number of claims processed relative to incoming retirement claims; a higher percentage indicates OPM is keeping up or catching up; a lower percentage suggests falling behind.
| Month | Claims Received | Claims Processed | % Processed vs Received |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan-25 | 16,101 | 6,700 | 41.6% |
| Feb-25 | 9,637 | 12,364 | 128.3% |
| Mar-25 | 7,803 | 11,559 | 148.2% |
| Apr-25 | 8,332 | 8,953 | 107.4% |
| May-25 | 15,048 | 9,739 | 64.7% |
| Jun-25 | 13,430 | 8,585 | 63.9% |
| Jul-25 | 8,295 | 8,485 | 102.3% |
| Aug-25 | 9,416 | 11,195 | 118.9% |
| Sep-25 | 6,095 | 7,902 | 129.7% |
The OPM retirement backlog dropped from 26,328 at its peak in June to 23,552 at the end of September, a reduction of 2,776 claims.
Even though the raw number of claims processed in September was lower, the processing pace relative to incoming claims was the strongest of the year, suggesting OPM was not slowing down — it was accelerating its catch-up efforts, especially as incoming claims dropped sharply.
Highlights
- February–April: OPM processed more claims than it received, helping reduce the backlog.
- May–June: Processing lagged behind incoming claims, contributing to the inventory spike.
- July–September: OPM returned to a catch-up pace, especially in September, where it processed nearly 130% of the claims received — the highest ratio of the year.
OPM’s Online Retirement Application
The Office of Personnel Management is currently transitioning from a paper-based retirement application process to an online system called the Online Retirement Application (ORA). This new system aims to streamline the process, reduce delays, and improve efficiency.
The new system launched in June. It’s a work in progress, but it’s designed to expedite what has traditionally been a very slow process for federal retirees.
OPM Director Scott Kupor discussed ORA in a recent blog post and said that the agency has about 35,000 retirement applications pending in ORA with a September retirement date, so I anticipate we can expect to see a big spike in the retirement processing statistics in the October report.
This spike is primarily from the Deferred Resignation Program which ran through the end of the 2025 fiscal year (September 30, 2025). Kupor told NBC4 Washington recently that about 150,000 federal employees accepted this offer, and of those, the last day of work for approximately 100,000 was September 30 with the remainder being the end of the calendar year.
He explained that OPM cannot start processing a federal employee’s retirement package until after he or she is off of the federal payroll. In his blog post, he wrote:
…OPM traditionally doesn’t even receive the retirement application until almost 30 days from the retirement date. The applicant may complete her form quickly, but the process of application review by the HR agency that employed the retiree can take up to two weeks and then the payroll providers can add another two weeks to provide all historical compensation information. OPM needs the payroll information because, among other things, the starting basis for calculating annuitant pay is the “High Three,” or the average of the three highest consecutive salaries the annuitant received at any time during their employment.
With respect to addressing the pending surge in retirement claims, he said OPM’s goal to get interim pay to new retirees as quickly as possible. He wrote:
Because OPM needs some time to perfect a retirement application, we aim to get retirees some money as quickly as possible. Interim Pay is the mechanism to do that – typically, we do a rough calculation based on the available data we have and pay most retirees 80% of their expected annuity within 30 days of OPM receiving an application.
But, “most” is not enough given the volume of retirees we are seeing. Rather, we are going to increase the number of retirees that we can put into interim pay with a goal of getting 80% of retirees a check within 30 days of receipt of their application and the remainder within 60 days. In some cases, we will undoubtedly underpay a retiree and in others we may overpay. Neither of these situations are catastrophic or irreversible – we will true up to the “right” amount as we perfect an application. Job number one is getting cash into the hands of a retiree.
He added that ORA has provided increased visibility into the process for OPM which helps ensure retirees submit “healthy” retirement applications (i.e. free from errors). He said, however, that it’s still too early on in the process to predict precise efficiency gains since the new system is being rolled out for the first time.
OPM Retirement Processing Status: September 2025
The latest retirement processing statistics are included below for reference.
| 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 |
| May-25 | 15,048 | 9,739 | 21,483 | 49 | 52 |
| Jun-25 | 13,430 | 8,585 | 26,328 | 45 | 52 |
| Jul-25 | 8,295 | 8,485 | 26,138 | 59 | 52 |
| Aug-25 | 9,416 | 11,195 | 24,359 | 70 | 54 |
| *Sep-25 | 6,095 | 7,902 | 23,552 | 76 | 56 |
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 47.5 days to complete; whereas cases that were produced in more than 60 days, on average, took 87.9 days to complete.
