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The Office of Personnel Management reported that April's average monthly processing time for retirement claims was down from March and February, but still higher than in 2021.
OPM received fewer and processed more claims in March than the previous two months, while also improving the monthly average processing times, but it wasn't enough to make a dent in the backlog.
The backlog in federal retirement claims continued to climb in February as OPM decreases the monthly average processing time from 94 to 89 days.
The backlog of retirement claims has finally broken 30,000, or 31,307 in January, to be precise. The Office of Personnel Management reported 4,577 more claims awaiting processing last month compared to December, or a 17% increase.
After November's dramatic spike, the FYTD average processing rate is still the highest it's been in a year. But the monthly average is now back to around what it was in February and June.
The fiscal year to date average processing time increased from 79 days to 95 days between September and October, which is the highest it's been for at least a year.
Recently released stats show OPM received 7,589 new retirement claims last month, compared to 8,976 new claims received in August.
OPM has not come back to pre-COVID levels of retirement claims processing and staffing, and like many federal agencies is still dealing with a wide swath of the workforce working remotely.
The 22% increase in federal retirements from June to July has led to a growing claims backlog.
June stats from the Office of Personnel Management for newly filed claims showed last month was higher than a year ago, when the pandemic was in full effect.
Federal retirement activity slowed across the board last month, from new claims to backlogged cases and even the time it takes to process them.
Few aspects of federal retirement seem to be trending down more than a year after the pandemic first hit the U.S.
An unexpected surge in retirement claims during March exceeded OPM's ability to keep up with the backlog.
One agency warned retirees could wait as long as six months for an initial interim payment and up to a year for a full annuity. The National Finance Center said it plans to return to its goal of processing retirements cases within 30 days by the end of the month.