CHICAGO – Today, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and U.S. Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL-02) led nine of their colleagues in sending a bicameral letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) urging the agency to address the delay with processing and delivering federal retirement benefits to federal employees.  OPM, which manages government employees’ health insurance and retirement benefit programs, has a substantial retirement claim inventory backlog, resulting in federal retirees often waiting more than 90 days to receive their deserved benefits.  With one in three federal employees eligible to retire this year, OPM will continue to face strains unless the agency takes concrete steps to improve its review process. 

“We write to express our concern with the excessive delays federal retirees in our states are facing as they wait to obtain their hard-earned retirement benefits.  It has been reported that average retirement processing times have been far above the agency’s stated goal of 60 days—instead often exceeding 90 days.  We are aware of at least one case that has been in processing for fifteen months,”the lawmakers wrote. 

“Our nation’s federal retirees are dedicated public servants who often have provided decades of essential work that is vital in keeping our government running, despite being subjected to uncertainty due to hiring freezes, continuing resolutions, and other budget constraints.  We are aware that OPM is working to implement the changes needed to better serve federal retirees,” the lawmakers continued.

OPM’s backlog is attributed to the agency’s reliance on the manual processing of paper-based applications, insufficient staffing, and submissions of incomplete applications.  As the backlog has grown over time, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) called on OPM last June to modernize the application review.

The lawmakers continued their letter by requesting information about OPM’s review process and how the agency plans to streamline its review process in the coming months to adequately address the backlog. 

“A recent report found that OPM received close to twice as many retirement claims in January 2023 as it did the previous month.    What is OPM’s plan to handle the increased caseload without further extending processing time?” the lawmakers asked. 

“OPM’s strategic vision includes an initiative to modernize the application process, including developing an electronic application form and an electronic system to store retirement information.  A pilot digital retirement system, which is based on OPM’s modernization initiative, already has been rolled out.  How many retirees has the pilot served so far?  What is the timeline and cost to implement the pilot program across the agency?” they asked further.

“A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that OPM uses methods, such as hiring additional staff and using overtime pay to address large caseload amounts and understaffing issues; however, the same GAO report found that OPM does not ‘measure overtime productivity or correlate overtime data with application processing data.’   Does OPM plan to measure how these strategies affect application processing and productivity in the future? What other strategies is OPM using to reduce processing time, and how is it measuring the effectiveness of those strategies?”the lawmakers questioned. 

The lawmakers concluded their letter by reminding OPM that federal retirees have earned these benefits from decades of work.

“We cannot fail to serve the public servants who have dedicated so many years to keep our government running.  We look forward to your timely response to this letter,” the lawmakers concluded their letter. 

Joining Durbin, Duckworth, and Kelly in sending the letter are U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and U.S. Representatives Shontel Brown (D-OH-11), Annie Kuster (D-NH-02), and Mark Pocan (D-WI-02). 

Full text of today’s letter is available here and below:

April 3, 2023

Dear Director Ahuja,

            We write to express our concern with the excessive delays federal retirees in our states are facing as they wait to obtain their hard-earned retirement benefits.  It has been reported that average retirement processing times have been far above the agency’s stated goal of 60 days—instead often exceeding 90 days.  We are aware of at least one case that has been in processing for fifteen months.  We also have experienced delayed response times to congressional inquiries.

            Our nation’s federal retirees are dedicated public servants who often have provided decades of essential work that is vital in keeping our government running, despite being subjected to uncertainty due to hiring freezes, continuing resolutions, and other budget constraints.  We are aware that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is working to implement the changes needed to better serve federal retirees.  As OPM modernizes and improves the federal retirement system, we request that you provide a timely response to the following questions:

1. A recent report found that OPM received close to twice as many retirement claims in January 2023 as it did the previous month. ^[1]  What is OPM’s plan to handle the increased caseload without further extending processing time?
2. Is OPM adequately staffed?  If not, in which office in the agency are additional staffing resources most needed?
3. What assistance from Congress does OPM need to maintain a fully staffed workforce and process retirees’ applications in a timely manner?
4. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that OPM has a continued reliance on paper-based applications and manual processing, which contributes to processing delays.^[2]  OPM’s 2022-2026 strategic vision includes an initiative to modernize the application process, including developing an electronic application form and an electronic system to store retirement information.  A pilot digital retirement system, which is based on OPM’s modernization initiative, already has been rolled out.  How many retirees has the pilot served so far?  What is OPM’s plan to expeditiously expand the program across the agency?  What is the estimated cost of implementing digitization?  
5. The same GAO report found that OPM uses methods, such as hiring additional staff and using overtime pay to address large caseload amounts and understaffing issues; however, it also found that OPM does not “measure overtime productivity or correlate overtime data with application processing data.”  Does OPM plan to measure how these strategies affect application processing and productivity in the future? What other strategies is OPM using to reduce processing time, and how is it measuring the effectiveness of those strategies?
6. Reports have shown that incomplete applications are contributing to the delays.  What are the underlying reasons for the incomplete applications?  Is the application sufficiently accessible to all applicants?  Does OPM provide timely assistance with the process, either by phone, online, or another method?  What is OPM’s plan to cut down on the number of incomplete applications?
7. There are third-party consulting companies that advertise assistance to federal retirees to speed up the processing of their retirement claims.  Is OPM aware of these companies?  What impact, if any, do they have on the speed by which OPM processes retirement claims?  If they have no impact, what outreach is OPM conducting to prevent retirees from unnecessarily paying for these services? 

We cannot fail to serve the public servants who have dedicated so many years to keeping our government running.  We look forward to your timely response to this letter.

Sincerely, 

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