The Workplace of Personnel Administration continued to course of the annual flood of early retirement requests, processing greater than 10,000 requests for the second month in a row.
OPM processed 10,711 pension functions in March, a rise of virtually 700 functions from the earlier month, and nearly 1,800 greater than the identical interval a 12 months in the past. Mixed with the truth that new claims proceed to fall to 7,943 from January’s peak of 12,997 final month, the whole backlog of pending claims has fallen from 19,591 in February to 16,823 final month.
That determine is a marked enchancment from 2023, when OPM’s pension backlog solely fell beneath 17,000 in June. On the finish of March 2023, the backlog nonetheless amounted to 22,925 pending claims. OPM’s goal “regular state” of pending claims at any given time is 13,000.
Regardless of these good points, the typical processing time for pension functions, measured on a month-to-month foundation, elevated from 47 days in February to 55 days final month. An general common measured because the begin of the fiscal 12 months in October was 61 days on the finish of March, a slight enchancment on the typical of 62 days measured the month earlier than.
OPM’s pension course of has been plagued for years by complaints about opacity and slowness. Whereas a serious reform — digitizing the method and federal workforce information — remains to be in growth, numerous short-term fixes look like paying off throughout this 12 months’s retirement rush.
The company has devoted extra workers and hours to processing claims, whereas management has printed a sequence of guides and checklists to assist federal staff higher perceive the method, together with which company is liable for which section, and to assist them establish frequent forestall issues. pitfalls in finishing the appliance, which is the largest reason for processing delays.