Retirement

OPM sees slight drop in retirement claims backlog

April’s backlog is 3,077 claims higher than the steady state goal of 13,000, but is the lowest backlog level OPM has seen since December of 2023.

Michele Sandiford

May 10, 2024 4:12 pm

< a min read

In April, the Office of Personnel Management’s retirement claims backlog shrank slightly, hitting it’s lowest inventory for 2024. The 16,077 claims are a decrease of 746 from March. April’s backlog is 3,077 claims higher than the steady state goal of 13,000, but is the lowest backlog level OPM has seen since December of 2023, when claims were just over 14,000.

In April, 6,901 new claims were filed, a decrease of 1,042 from March. OPM processed 7,647 claims, a decrease from the 10,711 claims processed the month before, and the lowest number of claims processed since the start of the year.

Initial retirement cases in April completed in less than 60 days took on average 39 days to process, keeping pace with last month, while initial cases that were processed in more than 60 days on average took 104 days, a 30-day decrease from the previous month.

April’s monthly average processing time increased from 55 to 61 days in the last month, but still remained lower than January’s average of 66 days.

January still holds the 2024 record for largest number of retirement claims filed with 12,997.