The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is notorious for taking months to process retirement applications. There is a continuous backlog. This is especially difficult for someone who is applying for Federal Disability Retirement. They can’t work, or at least not their full capacity, and they don’t know when their annuity payments will begin.
So what’s the problem? Why is it that there is a backlog of cases at OPM? Is it too little help? Or are the annuity calculations too difficult?
Backlog Cause: Too Little Help
There is only a handful of Legal Administrative Assistants (LAS) that process claims at OPM. There have been instances when temporary help was hired, or mandatory overtime was scheduled. In August 2016, the number of cases out of OPM was 16, 334! That’s a staggering number for just a handful of people to work on.
FERS Annuity
Could it be that the FERS annuity calculation takes too long to compute? It is estimated that it takes one LAS up to three hours to complete one calculation! That would mean, at most, that same LAS could complete three calculations in a day. That just doesn’t cut it when there are over 16,000 cases sitting around. On the flip side, a LAS could complete 8-10 CSRS annuity computations in a day. This is because there are somewhere around 30 elements that go into a FERS annuity computation. Some of these elements include your birth year, service years, and High-3 salary.
Submitting a complete and timely application can help ensure your case has as little delays as possible. If you are unsure if you have all the documents and forms you need, give us a call at 877-226-2723 or schedule a free consultation. Harris Federal Law Firm has been helping federal workers submit their applications for over a decade. We are here to help you in any way we can.
