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The OPM retirement backlog climbed to 54,000+ cases in January after a major surge in federal retirement filings. January is always busy, but this year’s spike highlights ongoing workforce trends and the strain on OPM’s processing system. Learn what’s driving the delays, how digital claims are helping, and what this means for federal employees preparing to retire.
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Retirement Surge Pushes OPM Retirement Backlog Over 54k in January
https://www.fedsmith.com/2026/02/05/retirement-surge-pushes-opm-retirement-backlog-over-54k-in-january/
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https://www.fedsmith.com/tag/backlog/
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0:00 Introduction
1:13 January 2026 Retirement Figures
1:58 What's Driving the Increase?
2:46 Transition to Online Retirement Application (ORA)
3:53 OPM Director Explains ORA Process
5:59 Conclusion
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
The backlog of retirement claims at the
0:02
Office of Personnel Management surged
0:04
past 54,000 total claims as of the end
0:07
of January based on data just released
0:10
by OPM. However, digital processing is
0:13
on the rise because of the AY's
0:15
transition to a new system and that has
0:17
the potential to really help federal
0:19
retirees. Let's take a look at some of
0:21
the numbers. Hey everyone, I'm Ian Smith
0:23
with fedsmith.com and I wanted to give
0:26
you an overview of uh the current state
0:28
of the OPM retirement backlog. That's
0:31
the total inventory of retirement claims
0:33
from federal employees who have recently
0:35
retired from federal service. And this
0:38
is important because the the bigger the
0:41
backlog is, the more time it can
0:43
potentially take for uh the claims to to
0:46
get fully processed by the government
0:48
and therefore the longer it will take
0:50
federal retirees to get their full
0:52
annuity payments. The good news though
0:54
is that when OPM gets a retirement
0:58
application from a federal employee
1:00
who's retiring, they pay out. It's
1:03
called interim pay. So that person
1:06
starts getting his or her monthly
1:08
annuity payment, just a portion of it,
1:10
not the full amount uh within just a few
1:12
days. But as I said, the the uh figure
1:15
has really increased. January is
1:17
historically the busiest time of the
1:19
year for OPM for federal employees
1:22
retiring from the federal government.
1:24
This year was no exception. OPM received
1:27
18,923
1:29
new retirement claims in January. That's
1:32
a 6.8% 8% increase um in total inventory
1:38
uh over December. The backlog now stands
1:41
at 54,018
1:43
total and that total backlog increased
1:46
by 6.8% over the end of December and it
1:49
it increased by 3,452
1:52
cases. The total inventory is now the
1:55
highest it's been since 2012.
1:58
[clears throat] As I mentioned, January
1:59
is always the busiest month. So, that's
2:02
part of why it's gone up so much, but
2:05
also, as I'm sure you're aware, the
2:07
federal workforce has been reduced
2:09
considerably um over the past several
2:12
months. And um like the deferred
2:15
resignation program, for instance, and
2:17
so more federal employees have been
2:19
leaving, and that's pushed the
2:22
retirement backlog to unusually high
2:24
levels, especially over the last several
2:26
months. I've done a number of articles
2:29
on that topic on fedsmith.com. I'll be
2:32
sure to leave a link to to some of them
2:34
in the description so you can see the
2:36
pattern. Normally the some of these
2:38
months like in the middle of summer and
2:40
the fall tend to be kind of slower
2:42
months in terms of incoming retirement
2:44
claims, but not in 2025. But there is
2:46
good news in all of this because OPM has
2:49
been transitioning to a new digital
2:51
retirement application processing system
2:54
called um online retirement application
2:56
or OA for short and that transition is
3:00
underway. So while it is OPM is
3:03
currently having to process both paper
3:06
the old style retirement applications by
3:08
hand the paper ones as well as the new
3:10
digital ones. But what the data show is
3:14
that the digital process is speeding
3:16
things up considerably and it's probably
3:18
going to continue to get faster in the
3:19
future as the system continues to take
3:21
effect. So that is some good news if
3:23
you're a recent federal retiree waiting
3:25
on your claim to be processed. I'll put
3:27
up some figures here on the the screen
3:30
for you to show u just how much the
3:33
number of digital claims has increased
3:35
recently since it started getting rolled
3:37
out. Based on the January figures, OPM
3:40
is processing the digital claims in
3:43
about half the time as the paper ones.
3:46
In January, it took 97 days on average
3:49
to process the paper claims versus 48
3:51
days for digital. Scott Cooper is OPM's
3:55
director and he wrote a blog post very
3:57
recently on January 23rd where he
4:00
explained the retirement process and he
4:02
outlined some of the um the current
4:04
figures with respect to the new digital
4:07
system as well as how the process works
4:11
and how long it's currently taking.
4:13
Again, I'll be sure to leave a link to
4:16
that article in the description, but
4:18
I'll cover some of the highlights here
4:20
just so you get an idea of how it works.
4:22
Cooper explained that the OA system is a
4:25
multi-step process. First, the
4:27
application is filled out online by the
4:29
applicant. It takes applicants an
4:31
average of 14 days. Again, these figures
4:34
are as of the time of the article he
4:37
wrote. Uh an average of 14 days to
4:39
complete the online application. The OA
4:43
system then routes it to agency HR
4:45
departments. It's currently taking an
4:47
average of about 60 days to for those
4:50
departments to add employment data to
4:52
the application to complete this step.
4:54
The final routing step sends the
4:56
application to the agency's payroll
4:58
provider. This step is currently taking
5:01
about 51 days on average for payroll to
5:03
complete its part. So all told, what
5:06
Cooper said is that it takes about 120
5:09
days from when the applicant starts the
5:11
application process for OPM to then
5:14
receive a fully completed application.
5:16
And currently in the OA system, there
5:19
are 107,000 total claims roughly. And
5:23
about half of those, Cooper said, are
5:25
with OPM. Another 30% are with payroll
5:28
providers, 12% with agency HR teams, and
5:32
8% with the applicants. So, that gives
5:35
you an idea of how the system works.
5:37
Clearly, there's a lot of parts and
5:39
pieces to it. Cooper also said they're
5:41
issuing interim pay for the annuity
5:44
payments um immediately about 75% of the
5:47
time. So again, that's good news for
5:50
federal retirees because that means
5:52
you're getting your uh the interim pay,
5:55
which is a a significant portion of your
5:57
monthly annuity payment pretty quickly.
6:00
So although the retirement backlog is at
6:02
record high levels right now, there is
6:04
good news because of the timing of
6:07
rolling out this new digital system that
6:09
will help to ultimately speed up the
6:11
process. And I think in the future,
6:13
you're going to see more and more and
6:14
more claims going to digital. And I
6:18
think the the uh processing is going to
6:20
get faster, too. Scott Cooper also said
6:22
in his blog post, that's something else
6:24
OPM is working on. Um the different
6:27
parts and pieces I mentioned, he said
6:28
they're working on ways to make those
6:31
faster as well. So all in all, again,
6:33
even though the backlog is quite large
6:35
right now, I think it probably will
6:36
ultimately get reduced more quickly than
6:38
it has in the past because of this new
6:41
system. I've written an article on this
6:43
subject on the the new January figure
6:46
specifically that goes into a lot more
6:48
detail than I did in this video. So,
6:50
I'll be sure to include a link to that
6:51
in the description. So, please be sure
6:53
to check all of those out. Also, like
6:54
and subscribe to the channel to get more
6:56
updates and also visit the fedsmith.com
6:59
website. We've got articles on this and
7:01
many other subjects that affect current
7:03
and former federal employees that I
7:04
think you'll find of interest. And we
7:06
have a free email list on that site as
7:08
well, so you can get updates over email.
7:10
Thank you for watching and we'll see you
7:12
next time.
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