OPM makes no progress with retirement backlog to start 2023

Retirement

OPM makes no progress with retirement backlog to start 2023

The Office of Personnel Management’s backlog in federal retirement claims climbed in the new year as the monthly average processing times increased to 93 days...

Derace Lauderdale

February 16, 2023 5:36 pm

< a min read

The Office of Personnel Management started 2023 with a rise in its retirement claims processing backlog by 3,262. In January, OPM received 12,404 claims, an almost 7,000 increase compared to December. OPM only processed 9,142, leaving the inventory backlog at the highest level since October with 24,858 claims.

The increase in the backlog means OPM is almost 12,000 claims above its steady state goal of 13,000.

OPM didn’t improve the average processing time for January as compared to December. OPM says it typically took 93 days in January to process a claim, up from 85 days the month before. OPM noted in January that retirement cases completed in less than 60 days on average took 42 days to process. Meanwhile, OPM says cases that took more than 60 days on average required 131
days to fully process.