OPM’s retirement application pile remains large as the year draws to a close

As 2025 is winding down and many federal employees are in the transition period between federal employment and retirement. There are thousands of employees who have entered retirement since the Fork in the Road began the process of massive federal downsizing but have not yet begun to receive their full retirement benefits.     

Retiree applications pile up as year-end approaches

Tom Hanks, playing Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, used this modified version of the astronaut's famous quote, "Houston, we have a problem!" I wonder if these words have been spoken at the Office of Personnel Management's Retirement Operations Center in Boyers, Pa., where an astounding 43,737 applications arrived by mail, FedEx or electronic ORA system from federal agencies across the country and around the world during October and November.

In comparison, in the same two months of 2024, OPM received only 13,680 applications for processing. At the end of November 2024, OPM had an inventory of 13,844 retirement applications waiting for final processing. At the end of November 2025, OPM had an inventory of 48,396 retirement applications (both paper and digital) awaiting final processing.

OPM shifts retirement applications fully online

A May 7, 2025, memo from then-Acting Director of OPM Charles Ezell declared that effective June 2, 2025, all new retirement applications started on that date or later, along with any supporting documents, must be submitted electronically. For those and all future applications, any newly created paper retirement packages would not be accepted and would be sent back to the agency for digital resubmission. Effective July 15, 2025, OPM would facilitate applications through OPM's Online Retirement Application (ORA) and no longer accept paper submissions. 

Apparently, not everyone got the memo — or at least there were exceptions made to this directive. In November, OPM received 7,833 digital retirement applications using the ORA system, but they also received 15,560 paper applications for a total of 23,393 applications received in November (it is likely that most of these were employees who retired at the end of the initial Deferred Resignation Period on Sept. 30, 2025).

All of this has left OPM with a paperwork bottleneck at precisely the wrong time of year, with thousands of retirees still waiting to receive their full benefits.

So happy holidays everyone. Unfortunately, you may need to celebrate as the Whos in Whoville did when the Grinch Stole Christmas.