Retirement

OPM retirement claims backlog hits lowest point since 2017

While still 2,826 claims higher than the steady state goal of 13,000, OPM hasn't seen backlog levels this low since December of 2017, when claims were below 15,...

Michele Sandiford

December 8, 2023 2:49 pm

< a min read

In November, the Office of Personnel Management’s retirement claims backlog hit its lowest inventory for the last twelve months. The 15,826 claims are a decrease of 852 from October. While still 2,826 claims higher than the steady state goal of 13,000, OPM hasn’t seen backlog levels this low since December of 2017, when claims were below 15,000.

In November, 5,207 new claims were filed, a decrease of 1,717 from October. OPM processed 6,059 claims, just 39 fewer than the previous month.

Initial retirement cases in November completed in less than 60 days took on average 39 days to process, down three days from last month’s pace, while initial cases that were processed in more than 60 days on average took 119 days. That’s a six day decline from October.

November’s monthly average processing time fell from 73 to 66 in the last month, just one day shy of this year’s 65 day record set in February.

November’s 5,207 claims were the second lowest for the year, beat only by June when 4,854 claims were filed. January holds the 2023 record for largest number of claims filed with 12,404.