For months, the I-Team has been tracking concerns with processing retirement benefits for thousands of federal workers who left the federal government this year.Roughly 150,000 federal employees took the Deferred Resignation Program buyout this year, according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), with about 100,000 of those leaving on Sept. 30.
The exodus of workers resulted in widespread delays across the system, especially as processing federal retirement claims happens in two stages. After employees submit their paperwork, their agency completes their application and sends it to OPM to finalize and issue payments.
In September, OPM Director Scott Kupor told the I-Team he expects most agencies will process retirement claims within 30 days. He also said he was optimistic OPM could process retirements within 60 days of receiving an agency’s paperwork.
But OPM’s own metrics show the monthly average processing time shot up this summer, rising to an average of 79 days in October, when OPM saw more than 20,000 new retirement claims – almost triple the number of retirement applications it received the month before.
