Federal retirement claims spike in May

view original post

Federal retirement claims spike in May

OPM launched two new tools this week to improve the retirement services process.

Michele Sandiford

June 6, 2025 3:49 pm

< a min read

More federal employees filed retirement papers with the Office of Personnel Management in May than in the last three months. OPM said it received more than 15,000 claims last month, driving the backlog up over 21,000. The processing time for these retirement claims remain consistent at 49 days on average in May and 52 days on average for the entire 2025. The increase in applications comes as OPM is requiring agencies to send retirement paperwork only in digital formats by July 15. OPM launched two new tools this week to improve the retirement services process. One is a new platform for agency HR and payroll providers and another to modernize the Electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF) platform.
The Department of the Air Force is facing recruiting setbacks due to a year-long continuing resolution. The service lost nearly half a billion dollars from its military personnel account, preventing it from recruiting 3,000 Americans who wanted to join. Despite the shortfall, the Air Force has met 94% of its recruitment goal and anticipates reaching 100% by the end of June. The reduced fiscal 2025 budget has also cut funding for facility sustainment, restoration and modernization by $642 million, which will directly impact Airmen’s quality of life.
Government and union attorneys are still arguing over the details of when and how federal agencies are allowed to conduct reductions in force, even as the same issue awaits a potential decision from the Supreme Court. A federal district judge is giving the government until next week to explain how State Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development plan on conducting RIFs without running afoul of a preliminary injunction that blocked the Trump administration from carrying out its agency reorganization plans. The government contends the planned RIFs are separate from the governmentwide executive order that told agencies to conduct reorganization efforts, and that those RIFs would be carried out under department secretaries’ independent authority.
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing for major budget and staffing cuts next year. The Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request would cut IRS staffing by 20%. The agency would also see a nearly 40% cut in funding. The Yale Budget Lab projects staffing cuts of this magnitude would result in the IRS collecting $159 billion less in revenue over the next 10 years. Despite the budget and staffing cuts, the IRS plans to hire more than 11,000 call center representatives to maintain its current level of phone service to taxpayers.
More Postal Service employees are being attacked by dogs while delivering mail. The agency said over 6,000 USPS employees were bitten or injured by dogs on their routes last year. The most incidents happened in Los Angeles followed by Houston and Chicago. USPS tells employees to stand their ground if they’re attacked by a dog and to place their mail satchel or another item between them and the dog. Letter carriers can refuse to deliver mail to a household if they feel unsafe to do so.
The Air Force will award $53 million this year to improve Palau Hall, a barracks facility on Andersen Air Force Base in Guam where Airmen have been living in hazardous conditions. The contract is expected to be awarded within 90 days and construction will begin within 60 days after that. The service is currently in the process of moving all 77 Airmen out of Palau Hall. Navy Secretary John Phelan recently visited the facility where Sailors and Marines had also been housed and ordered their immediate relocation after witnessing the conditions firsthand.
The Defense Department is out with new guidance telling its contracting officers and program managers how to implement the president’s April executive order that requires agencies to buy commercial products and services “to the maximum extent practicable.” The memo lays out the process DoD acquisition officials will need to use to get approval for non-commercial procurements. Among other things, the guidance likely means busy times ahead for the Defense Contract Management Agency’s Commercial Item Group, which is being tasked with helping DoD components figure out if commercial offerings can meet the requirements of any individual procurement. The memo also lays out the process DoD acquisition officials will need to use to get approval for non-commercial procurements.
House lawmakers want to put agency credit card management and usage under the microscope. Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of Oversight and Reform Committee and Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) are asking the Government Accountability Office to analyze agency credit cards across the CFO Act agencies, specifically focusing on charges for high risk categories like adult entertainment, weight loss and diet products and more than a dozen others. Comer and Mace are requesting GAO look into this after the Defense Department IG found more than 78 hundred charges to “known high-risk merchants.”