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The Office of Personnel Management now estimates it will not be able to clear a longstanding backlog of retirement claims until next summer. OPM Associate Director for Retirement Services Ken Zawodny told Federal News Radio the suspension of overtime in late April has left the agency essentially treading water when it comes to processing retirement applications.
OPM processed just 8,683 claims last month — about 2,800 fewer than it had initially expected to. That's the second month in a row OPM fell behind in processing monthly claims according to new OPM data. The agency was forced to eliminate overtime for employees in its Retirement Services operation at the end of April because of the automatic budget cuts.
The No. 1 complaint people have after retiring is how long it takes them to get the first full annuity payment. Depending on a lot of things it can take anywhere from a couple of months to more than a year.
The Office of Personnel Management's efforts to process retirement claims and reduce a longstanding backlog slipped last month, after the agency was forced to cancel employee overtime because of automatic budget cuts. OPM processed 10,954 claims in May, according to new data, 546 fewer than it had projected. That's only the third time in the past 16 months - since the agency rolled out a new plan for clearing the backlog — that OPM failed to hit its processing goal.
The number of federal employees filing retirement claims in April dipped below expectations following months of unexpectedly high numbers, according to new data from the Office of Personnel Management. OPM received 7,059 claims last month, about 1,000 fewer than expected.
The Office of Personnel Management says sequestration cuts have forced the agency to suspend overtime hours for employees working in its Retirement Services office and to curtail call-center hours.
For the third month in a row, the number of federal employees filing retirement claims outpaced the Office of Personnel Management's projections. OPM received 10,183 retirement claims in March, more than double the number it expected to receive, according to new OPM data..
Fewer federal employees filed for retirement in December than in any other month in 2012, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Even with the fewer than expected number of claims, however, the agency failed to meet its goal of processing 11,500 claims, instead clocking in just 10,454.
For the fourth straight month, the number of federal employees filing for retirement has outstripped the Office of Personnel Management's expectations, according to new data released by the agency. OPM also beat its projections for processing retirement claims.
OPM made changes to successfully chip away at an ongoing inadequacy, but the progress came after years of complaints from retired federal employees and urgings from lawmakers. Federal News Radio speaks with David Snell, director of retirement services for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association as part of the special report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years.
Senior Correspondent Mike Causey wants to know: Has the long-feared retirement tsunami hit the federal government? And if so, could the so- called brain drain be a career life-saver for tens of thousands of unemployed or under employed millennials?
Federal employees submitted nearly 9,000 retirement claims in August - more than in any other month besides January, which typically sees a wave of feds taking retirement. The Office of Personnel Management received 8,973 retirement claims in August, nearly a thousand more than it projected. The agency processed 11,896 claims, also surpassing its goals.
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Unless you get a better offer or drop dead before your time odds are you are going to eventually retire from the government...maybe in the same job you have now. But Senior Correspondent Mike Causey asks, how soon should your realistic retirement planning begin.