What Is Causing The Increase In The OPM Retirement Delays This Summer?

The OPM’s backlog for retirement claims showed a slight improvement in July. However, there’s been an unexpected seasonal increase in claims compared to past trends.

In July, the Human Resources Administration (OPM) received 8,295 new claims while managing to process 8,485 of them. This brought the backlog down to 26,138, a drop from the peak of 26,328 recorded earlier this year. Processing times averaged 59 days, which, surprisingly, is 31% longer than the 45 days noted in June.

OPM Resignation Backlog Trends in 2025

This year has seen an average of 11,235 claims coming in monthly, significantly up from 7,346 in 2024 and 7,398 in 2023. The processing rate also increased, with an average of 9,484 claims processed monthly, compared to 7,381 in 2024 and 8,006 in 2023.

The inventory of pending claims has surged, averaging 21,535 this year versus 15,899 last year and 18,652 the year before. Yet, there’s a silver lining: the average processing time has improved, dropping to 51 days compared to 60 days in the previous year and much lower than the 73 days in 2023.

Comparison of July 2025 and the Past Five Years

While total claims’ inventory continues to grow this summer, the number of new retirement claims in July was actually lower than in both May and June.

How does July 2025 stack up against last year? Here’s a look at the July statistics over the last five years:

Claims have varied notably from year to year during July, with 2025’s figures aligning more closely with those of previous years.

Summer Surge in Retirement Claims

The summer of 2025 kicked off with a noticeable spike in resignation claims starting in May and continuing through June. This trend appears to stem from a considerable number of federal employees leaving their positions, often through initiatives like deferred resignations and the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA).

Approximately 154,000 federal workers have resigned through such programs, and OPM Director Scott Kupor has indicated that workforce reductions might at least double in the foreseeable future.

Here’s a look at the resignation claims from the last three months:

Claims during these months have been significantly higher this year than in previous ones:

OPM’s Digital Resignation Processing System

The OPM is working on a digital retirement system named the Online Retirement Application (ORA), which launched officially in May.

According to OPM Director Scott Kupor, the goal is to transition the federal retirement process into a digital realm. He mentioned, amusingly, that this shift means retirement can happen almost instantly, rather than stretching on for months like it used to.

However, digitizing these records is an intricate endeavor due to the various sources that the data comes from. Al Himler, the former chief technology officer at OPM, reflected on the complexity of developing a new system in a blog post. He raised an important point regarding the sheer volume of paperwork involved—around 100,000 people retire each year, creating a significant logistical challenge.

One insight he shared was the importance of prioritizing incoming materials, which can be diverse—submissions from potential retirees, verification from those who have retired, and more. Even though automation sounds straightforward, handling varied inputs while sticking to a tight budget has proven difficult, though progress has been made. Automation for accepting retirement packages from specific pay providers is one such success that aims to both streamline error-free applications and establish digital ties with other institutions to gather necessary data for pension calculations. The intention is also to grow this digital setup further this year.

OPM Resignation Status: July 2025

Here are the latest figures on retirement processing:

The numbers indicate a challenging but ongoing effort, with the average time taken for processing indicating how efficiently OPM is handling these applications.