OPM: Fewer retirement claims in July but backlog not shrinking anytime soon

Retirement

OPM: Fewer retirement claims in July but backlog not shrinking anytime soon

The Office of Personnel Management's latest monthly retirement claims report shows progress in some areas but the backlog is still not budging.

Amelia Brust@abrustWFED

August 7, 2018 11:01 am

< a min read

For three months, the size of the Office of Personnel Management’s retirement claims backlog has remained fairly stagnant. The latest monthly report from the agency counted 18,334 claims in its inventory for July, compared to 18,198 claims in June and 18,024 claims in May.

Year over year, that backlog continued to be bigger than that of 2017. But OPM received 8,281 retirement claims — 1,789 fewer than in July 2017 — and processed 8,145 claims, or 636 more, than it did a year ago.

Month over month, however, July had fewer new claims and also saw fewer claims processed than in June, according to the report released Tuesday.

After a slight spike in June in the average time needed to process claims, the number of days returned to 57, roughly how long it took in April and May. Year-to-date that average has stayed about the same since February, according to OPM’s numbers.