For Those That Want to Know Some Facts and Numbers About Retirement Processing

For those that have your retirement scheduled to be at the very end of 2019, you may want to know about the processing that goes on with your retirement application. And even if you don’t plan to retire soon, you may still want to know about it as well.

For a federal employee to fill out an application for retirement, it must still be done on good ole traditional paper. However, the data listed on the form are now being sent over to the Office of Personnel Management electronically, which provides more proficiency and accuracy regarding your paperwork.

Ken Zawodney, associate director for retirement services at OPM, stated that due to modernization updates, about 74% of retirement claims (non-disability) are handled within 44 days. Though the Retirement Operations Center of OPM still has many paperwork and file cabinets, and it seems that retirement applications automatically being processed will still not happen quite so quickly. However, Zaqodny state that they have implemented some Lean Six Sigma production management ideas to help make the retirement processing much quicker and efficient.

To know and understand a little bit more in regards to retirement processing, let’s take a look at some data on percentages below.

Thirty percent is the ballpark percentage of claims for retirement that have what is called a deposit or redeposit. What these terms mean is that there is money that is indebted to the retirement fund and must be paid to be credited a time of service for eligibility to receive a retirement benefit or to prevent the possibility of a deduction to the benefit. The retired employee will have the chance to pay any deposits or redeposits that have not been paid before the processing is completed.

About 40 percentage of new retirement applications are put through using the Defense Finance and Accounting service. Thirty percent of applications are from the Postal Service, and 15 percent are from the National Finance Center. The Interior Department Business Center sends in about 8 percent, while the General Services Administration sends in about 4 percent of these claims. The 3 percent left to come from small third party offices dealing in payroll.

About 50 percent of new retirement applications are put into the status of interim pay right off the bat. This type of pay is about 80 percent of your basic benefit for retirement, which you will receive during the period that your application is being processed. Keep in mind that the 80 percent is not always guaranteed; it can be less at times, depending on your circumstances.

When you apply for retirement, about 59 percent of your that information is sent over electronically to the Retirement Operations Center, which enables OPM to start working on your claim.

About half a decade ago, the retirement claims that were coming in were about half and a half between the older retirement program CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) and the current FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System). Now, about 85 percent of these claims are under FERS. There are roughly 86,000 current employees under CSRS.

For those that are curious as to how long the OPM keeps records of retirees, it is currently up to the age of 115 before the record is destroyed.

With how much longer seniors are living in this day and age due to medical and health breakthroughs, about 250 retirees turn 100 each month. The OPM sends a milestone letter to those that reach that lucky number.

Currently, the OPM’s staff in retirement operations consists of around 500 people at the Retirement Operations Center, 300 in Washington, and 150 employees at their call center.

The OPM manages about 1 trillion dollars in funds that include health benefits, life insurance programs, and retirement plans.