Sources warn that the Trump administration has overstated both DOGE’s role in developing online retirement applications and its potential impact on the retirement process.
The Office of Personnel Management announced last week that it will roll out a new “paperless” retirement application for use across the federal government next month. But experts warn the milestone in OPM’s decades-long effort to modernize the retirement process is not the panacea that the Trump administration has touted it to be.
According to a memo from acting OPM Director Charles Ezell to agency heads, effective June 2, the federal government’s HR agency will require all new retirement applications to be submitted electronically via its new Online Retirement Application form. OPM is working with various agency payroll providers to prepare for the changeover next month.
“Over the last several months, [the Department of Government Efficiency] has been closely working with the Retirement Services team at OPM with the goal of creating an entirely digital process that dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to process retirement applications, providing a more efficient and improved experience to federal employees,” Ezell wrote. “The federal workforce deserves a retirement process that matches the demands of the 21st century.
