OPM Falls Behind on Retirement Claim Processing

You may be in for a bit of a wait when you file your retirement papers.

The sheer number of retirement claims received by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is causing processing delays, which means federal workers may have to wait until they receive all of their retirement benefits.

For example in May 2015, the OPM was able to process 68 percent of federal workers’ retirement claims within two months, according to recently released OPM data.

However, the other 32 percent had to wait two months or longer to receive the retirement perks of their long career in the federal workforce.

This lag has been increasing in recent months. From October 2014 to March 2015, the OPM was able to process at least 80 percent of the retirement claims the agency received in two months or less. Yet that rapid turnaround plummeted to 72 percent in April 2015 and 68 percent in May 2015.

In fairness, OPM is flooded with a new batch of applications every month — thousands of applications in fact.

In January 2015, for example, OPM received 18,629 retirement requests, according to the data.

And according to the most recently released data, in May 2015 OPM received 7,845 retirement requests. That month they were able to process 10,697 claims, but a backlog of 15,374 remained.

We bring this to your attention to remind you that quite a lag still exists: Don’t expect a quick turnaround with the processing of your retirement claim.

Make sure your finances are in order and that you are prepared for the potential drop in income when you leave your full-time job and wait for your retirement benefits to kick-in.

Also, we can help you understand the full potential of your retirement benefits before OPM gives you the numbers and sends you on your way.

Contact one of our benefits specialists for a free consultation.