OPM retirement claims near ‘steady state’

The Office of Personnel Management is within spitting distance of reaching its benchmark for retirement claims after June.

OPM received 5,929 retirement claims in June, almost 18 percent fewer than in May and the sixth lowest total since October 2014. Despite the drop in claims, however, the agency processed only 6,435 claims, about 16 percent fewer than in May and the third lowest amount in the last 21 months.

That brought the total backlog down by 3.6 percent, to 13,529, from 14,035 . In May’s report, OPM added the “steady state” line at 13,000 claims, but in June it only managed to process half the amount of claims to reach it.

June’s numbers continue the data trend indicating that OPM has gotten a handle on its inventory backlog, which surged in January–typically the month that most federal employees file for retirement.

OPM says it has processed 79 percent of claims in 60 days or less this year-to-date, a 1 percent decrease from May. In June, it processed 75 percent of claims in 60 days or less, which represents no change since May.

For those claims processed in less than 60 days, OPM says it took an average of 37 days, again the same as May. For those claims that took more than 60 days to process, the average jumped from 103 days in May to 115 in June.

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