The Office of Personnel Management’s retirement claims backlog rose by 5 percent in August, even as the claims it received declined by 26 percent.  And, for the second month in a row, OPM lost ground against its own goal of keeping a steady backlog of claims at 13,000.

OPM’s retirement backlog rose to 16,334 in August, and was on par with the figures from August 2015.  And as was the case last year, OPM has yet to achieve its monthly goal in 2016.

The inventory backlog typical surges to its highest point in January, as federal employees file for retirement benefits following an end-of-year retirement.  The rest of the year is spent trying to make up that backlog.

OPM received 6,818 new claims for retirement benefits in August, a 26 percent decline from July.  The monthly average throughout the year is approximately 8,000 claims.

In its year-to-date numbers, OPM reported that it processed 78 percent of its claims in 60 days or less.  Using a formula of five-day work weeks, that’s approximately three months.

For cases processed under 60 days, OPM said the average number of days it took to process a case rose slightly to 42 or about 8 weeks.  In more complicated cases, those  cases processed in more than 60 days, the average was a relatively steady 112 days or more than 5 months.

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