OPM Fails to Keep Up with the Retirement Benefit Claims

March 20, 2016

OPM has once again failed to keep up with the retirement claims made by the former employees. Though the number of pending claims has not been as low as it was last year at the same time, the situation is still very serious. The people worst impacted by this change are the retirees, especially the ones who have no other source of income and have to depend on others for their financial needs.

Data Speaks of OPM Inconsistencies

The current backlog of claims is more than 22, 500 as of now. This increase is due to the fact that the organization received more than 11,000 fresh requests last month. The surge in applications in the months of January and February was expected and yet the organization failed to keep up with it and hardly seemed prepared to tackle it. The percentage of the surge is nearly 15%.

The Good News?

Some analysts are of the opinion that things are not at their worst now because the backlog better when compared year on year (YOY). Last February, the backlog numbers were over 24,000. But is it really an improvement?

The Endless Race

The organization is certainly making some efforts in getting rid of this crisis. It can be proven by the fact that the organization has slowly reduced the backlog over the last year by processing the applications a bit more quickly. If it was better prepared to deal with the expected surge of applicants, it would not have been facing so much criticism. It seems the organization was too focused on reducing the backlog that it failed to take note of the crucial task of planning for the near future.

The Worst Impacted

The people who will be bearing the brunt of this backlog are none other than the retirees. They would have to wait for longer periods of time to get the money they deserve. They will likely be more dependent on their children or spouses to fulfill their financial requirements.

The Solution?

Acting OPM director Beth Cobert recently gave a solution to this problem via her official blog. She recommended that OPM should have access to more money to hire more resources that could play a key role in getting rid of the backlogs. This seems to be a viable solution but its implementation is not easy given the plight of the world economy.