The inventory of retirement applications pending at OPM grew in November to about 49,400 from the 34,600 in October, although the average processing time there decreased from 79 to 73 days, as use of the online portal OPM launched in the summer is starting to show some impact.
The 23,400 applications received during the month, was about 3,000 more than those received in October, according to OPM’s latest accounting, which now breaks out numbers and processing times by those received through the Online Retirement Application site vs. paper applications.
The 7,800 that came through the portal was up from about 6,200 in October and the average processing time for them was 38 days, compared with 45 in October. In contrast, the average processing time for paper claims was 94 days. “With systematic checks of data, annuitants experience less delays due to missing information or incomplete packages,” the summary says.
