Federal Retirement Processing Times Rise Again in 2021
According to the latest figures from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency's fiscal year (FY) to-date average processing time for federal retirement increased to 89 days in the final month of 2021. As of the end of the year, there were 26,730 outstanding retirement claims, marking the second highest retirement backlog in a decade.
Despite a brief respite in November, federal retirement benefits processing slowed again in December. After falling to 79 days in November, the monthly average processing time for claims rose to 92 days in December, comparable to the processing time in August through October which is usually the FY’s peak.
In December, OPM processed fewer federal retirement claims than those filed. Federal employees filed 7,569 new retirement claims in December, down from 8,266 in November, and OPM processed 8,010 claims in November. The backlog increased to 26,730 claims last month, which is still more than twice OPM's steady state goal of 13,000 claims.
According to OPM, cases that agencies and potential retirees produced in less than 60 days typically took 44 days to complete, whereas cases produced in more than 60 days on average took 114 days to complete. In part, this difficulty stems from an inability to process claims at pre-pandemic levels and limited funding.
Considering federal employees typically retire at the end of the year, the ongoing claims and the influx of new applications could further exacerbate the backlog.
