With fewer new retirees, OPM trims claims backlog

Workforce

With fewer new retirees, OPM trims claims backlog

The Office of Personnel Management saw a big drop in retirement claims for the month of March, which helped the agency trim its total claims backlog by about 3,...

Federal News Network Staff

April 6, 2015 1:02 pm

< a min read

By Sean McCalley
Federal News Radio

About 5,500 federal employees filed retirement claims in March. That total was about 1,000 claims less than the Office of Personnel Management expected, and is the third- lowest for single a month in the past year and a half.

OPM also processed about 9,000 claims, which was about 2,000 less than anticipated. But it was still enough to lower the agency’s backlog of retirement claims by about 3,500.

The total backlog now stands at about 20,600 claims.

Numbers for this March closely compare to last year. Both saw a steep decline from February, which is typically a popular time for employees to apply for retirement because of the year’s end.

Still, OPM received fewer claims than March’s 5,478 in only two other months since October 2013. In December 2014, it received 4,077, and, in November 2013, it received 4.952.

OPM expects the total backlog to fall even further by the end of April. It anticipates about 6,700 federal employees to file for retirement, and to process about 9,600 claims. That would place the total backlog around 17,700 claims.

The time it takes OPM to process a claim is still faster compared to a year ago. In May 2014, the agency processed 76.6 percent of claims within 60 days. Last month, it processed 81.6 percent claims in 60 days or less.

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