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if you're a federal employee following
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retirement news here's the headline this
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week the OPM retirement backlog surged
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68% at the end of January to kick off
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2025 but it's actually been a lot worse
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so let's look at it more closely the OPM
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retirement backlog is the that's what I
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call it for short it's the
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outstanding uh processed retirement
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claims at the agency for federal
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employees who filed their retirement
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applications so the claims aka the
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applications are what are waiting in the
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queue to be processed and it grew as I
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December at the end of December there
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876 um pending retirement claims
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and that jumped up to
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23,27 at the end of January now this is
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very typical this happens every year at
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this time January is always the worst
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month and it's because most federal more
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federal employees retire at the end of a
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calendar year than any other time and
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actually the office of personnel
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management has a term for it uh OPM
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refers to it as the annual surge period
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which is the first quarter of the
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calendar year January through March it
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actually usually goes in that order
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January is the worst February's the
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second worst March is least in terms of
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the the number of incoming retirement
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applications that the agency gets in
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each of those months January is always
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the highest um it has been worse though
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if you look at this table I'll put it up
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on the screen here for you you'll see
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that since uh 2020 there have been other
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years where more claims came in January
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2025 was the second highest in that time
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period 2020 had the most 17,1 34 but the
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retirement backlog actually fared the
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2022 you can see the total inventory at
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the end of January that year was just
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over 31,000 the retirement backlog was
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generally worse off that year it it
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36349 at the end of March
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2022 and it finished that year at
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21596 so presumably it will get better
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throughout 2025 as the year progresses
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and OPM was starting from a a place of
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Greater strength too because they had
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gotten the backlog down to the lowest it
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had been in I believe about eight years
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toward the latter part of
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2024 so they were very well prepared for
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this so you have to give them credit for
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that just another fun fact referring
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back to the table that looks go going
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back to 2020 but actually if you go back
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over the last 13 years it's been even
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higher in January 2013 there were
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2,479 so quite a bit higher still than
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uh than this year so why is all this
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well the more delays OPM faces in
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processing retirement applications the
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more it slows down federal employees who
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have recently retired and are waiting to
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get their retirement applications
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processed and what that means is they're
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not going to be getting their full
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annuity payments until OPM finishes
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completely processing it they get what's
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called an interim payment which is a
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partial payment so it's really in
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everybody's best interest for the
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situation to go as smoothly as possible
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and OPM has put together a number of
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resources to try to help federal
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employees one thing they have on their
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website it's called the OPM retirement
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quick guide and that's a a short guide
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that's got information about uh what to
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expect during the re retirement process
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the the retirement application process
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what happens once you submit your
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application and it also has an estimate
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of how long it's currently expected to
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take between when you submit your
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application and when you get your full
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annuity payment based on the current
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situation at the agency and as of the
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latest check on that it's three to five
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months and they also have some tips in
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there about how to have what they call a
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healthy quote unquote retirement
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application what OPM means by that is an
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application that is quote complete and
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accurate package that does not have to
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be developed for missing inaccurate or
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discrepant information and one of the
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key ways to have a healthy retirement
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application is to ensure that it's free
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from errors OPM says this also quote you
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can help reduce delays in processing by
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submitting your application in advance
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and by making sure your official
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Personnel folder is complete if you
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submit your paperwork early your
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personnel and payroll offices will be
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able to complete their action before
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your retirement date so early and
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accurate that's kind of opm's message to
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federal employees getting ready to
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submit their retirement applications try
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to make sure it has as few errors as
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possible in it I hope you found this
5:56
video helpful if so please remember to
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like And subscribe and be sure to check
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6:03
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