Up next in 10
OPM's retirement processing backlog dropped 23% in May 2026 — the largest single-month decline in 14 years — falling to 38,547 cases, its lowest point since last fall. After peaking at 65,237 in February, the backlog has now fallen 40% over three consecutive months. In this video, we look at what's driving the turnaround, what the numbers mean for federal employees who are retiring or planning to retire, and what to watch for in the months ahead.
For the full analysis with detailed data tables, read the complete article at FedSmith.com: https://www.fedsmith.com/2026/06/08/record-processing-month-slashes-opm-retirement-backlog-to-lowest-level-since-fall-2025/
📌 Subscribe for free federal employment news and updates: https://www.fedsmith.com
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0:00
Hello everyone, I'm Ian Smith with
0:01
fedsmith.com. I wanted to talk to you
0:03
today about the latest figures from the
0:05
Office of Personnel Management regarding
0:08
the backlog of retirement claims.
0:10
This is important information for many
0:12
federal employees who have retired
0:14
recently or planning to retire soon.
0:17
And as I'm sure you're aware, the
0:20
overall size of the federal workforce
0:22
shrank considerably over the last year
0:24
because of the number of federal
0:26
employees who were leaving federal
0:28
service.
0:29
And that's been reflected in the uh
0:32
backlog figures. But the good news is
0:35
May had a sharp turnaround from the
0:37
trends we've been seeing. The backlog
0:40
hit a record high in February
0:42
because of so many people leaving again.
0:44
It's we've seen unprecedented numbers in
0:47
the uh the the claims backlog. And it's
0:50
finally turned around and May continued
0:52
the trend from the last month or two in
0:54
an even bigger way. So I was going to go
0:56
over these figures with you. I've also
0:58
written an article on this. I'll leave a
0:59
link in the description to it that goes
1:01
into a lot more detail, but I wanted to
1:03
touch on some of the high-level points
1:05
in this video.
1:07
And these are some of those high-level
1:09
figures. May was a remarkable month for
1:11
OPM in terms of retirement processing.
1:14
The backlog fell by about 23%
1:17
and that's the biggest single drop in 14
1:20
years.
1:21
And it's now at its lowest point since
1:22
last fall.
1:24
And um
1:26
the you can also see from these figures
1:29
uh just how much it's come down in the
1:31
last 3 months. And that number of over
1:35
38,000 claims, that is still a lot.
1:38
But when you consider it was over 60,000
1:41
just at the end of February, it's it's
1:43
quite a turnaround. And there is that
1:46
number on this next slide. You can see
1:48
it it topped 65,000. That's the highest
1:50
it's ever been.
1:52
And these are also some of the figures
1:54
showing just how much the size of the
1:56
federal workforce has dropped uh over
1:59
the course of the last year or so. It's
2:01
down almost 13% from its peak in 2024
2:06
and it's now at just over 2 million.
2:09
That's still a large federal workforce,
2:11
but nowhere near the size that it was
2:14
during fiscal year 24.
2:17
OPM went through nearly 19,500.
2:21
You see the figure on the slide there.
2:23
But that's almost double the previous
2:25
record for any May any month of May I I
2:28
should say that's on record. The big
2:30
driver of this has been the introduction
2:32
of the online retirement application or
2:35
ORA for short. OPM introduced that about
2:37
a year ago roughly
2:39
and it has really sped up the processing
2:42
compared to the paper claims, the old
2:44
process.
2:46
Now this next slide
2:48
there are some figures here that help
2:49
really drive home just
2:51
the striking difference between the
2:53
digital claims and the paper claims in
2:56
terms of how long it takes to process
2:57
them.
2:58
In the paper processing average time has
3:02
been trending up in the last few months.
3:04
You can see it's peaked in May at 105
3:06
days.
3:08
But it's um
3:10
roughly double the amount of time to
3:12
process paper claims versus digital.
3:14
And the good news for anyone who's
3:16
retiring soon is that more and more
3:19
claims coming in now are digital. Almost
3:21
three out of four claims now are
3:23
digital. So that should continue based
3:26
on these figures to speed the process
3:28
up.
3:29
For anyone who's actually retiring in
3:32
the near future, um what this means
3:34
practically impacts interim pay and uh
3:38
when you're going to get your full
3:39
annuity.
3:41
Interim pay starts within 7 days of OPM
3:44
receiving your complete application.
3:46
That's based on OPM's uh current figures
3:49
at least.
3:50
And interim pay will cover approximately
3:53
60% to 80% of your estimated final
3:56
annuity. As of OPM's current estimates,
3:58
it takes roughly 3 to 5 months
4:01
um under normal circumstances for
4:05
the entire process to be completed. Um
4:07
again, that's based on OPM's latest
4:10
figures.
4:11
The thing is though, um
4:13
once OPM has your application, that's
4:17
when
4:18
the interim pay estimate starts.
4:21
Your agency has to process it initially
4:23
as well or do do their part of the
4:25
processing before they give it to OPM.
4:28
And so that's an important detail you
4:30
have to keep in mind.
4:31
And it's always important as well when
4:33
you're submitting your application to
4:35
make sure it's free of errors. That's
4:37
probably the single most common thing
4:39
that OPM is always citing as something
4:41
that can delay the process
4:43
is to eliminate any known errors because
4:46
it will slow down the application. We've
4:48
now had three straight months of the
4:50
retirement backlog trending down and
4:52
that's again very good news for anyone
4:54
who's retiring soon or has retired
4:56
recently.
4:58
And more and more claims coming in are
4:59
digital and that will speed the process
5:01
up based on the numbers that we're
5:03
seeing from OPM. As I mentioned, I have
5:05
written an article on this. It goes into
5:07
a lot more detail. So if you're a
5:08
numbers person, you want to really dig
5:10
into the numbers, please check that
5:11
article out on fedsmith.com. There's a
5:13
link to it in the description. And also
5:15
be sure to subscribe for we've got a a
5:18
free email list on fedsmith.com.
5:20
And um you can also subscribe to our
5:22
YouTube channel here for updates
5:25
um not only on this topic, but on other
5:27
important matters that can impact you in
5:29
your federal career. Thank you for
5:30
watching and have a good day.
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