OPM’s retirement backlog is at one of its highest levels since 2014. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
Following is a portion of a new inspector general report identifying top management challenges for OPM addressing long-standing issues of delays in processing retirement applications and the level of customer service to retirees.
Retirement Claims Processing Backlog
The timely processing and issuance of annuitants’ retirement claims payments is yet another challenge to OPM’s trust fund financial integrity. In FY 2021, OPM paid $83 billion in defined benefits to retirees, survivors, representative payees, and eligible family members. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and independent third-party organizations, such as our office, have identified challenges for Retirement Services, including the need to fund and modernize legacy systems to move from paper-based applications and manual case processing to electronic systems, insufficient staff capacity, and incomplete retirement applications from agencies, which have contributed to delays in case processing.
OPM’s retirement backlog is at one of its highest levels since 2014. Over the years, Congressional hearings have been held to address challenges in the retirement system, including the claims backlog. More than ten years ago, in January 2012, Retirement Services released and began implementation of its Strategic Plan, with the goal of adjudicating 90 percent of retirement cases within 60 days beginning in July 2013. In addition, while OPM’s FY 2022 – 2026 Strategic Plan does not contain a specific goal related to retirement services’ case processing, Goal 4 of OPM’s FY 2018 – 2022 Strategic Plan was developed to improve retirement services by achieving an average case processing time of 60 days or less – a goal that has yet to be consistently achieved. Retirement Services’ monthly average case processing time for August 2022 was 87 days. In addition, the retirement claims backlog in August 2022 was 29,237, which is slightly higher than the 28,565 claims in inventory at the same time a year ago.
Coordinating retirement benefits between OPM and other agencies for disability benefits and workers’ compensation has remained a problem area for the retirement program. Based on our audit,2 we found that disability applications are often incomplete when they are received by OPM, which requires further development of cases before they can be moved to the next phase of processing. Further, the legacy case management system requires employees to manually input case information and does not allow Retirement Services to distinguish system coding errors, which can lead to processing delays and inaccuracies. The recommendations from our audit report remain open pending implementation of corrective actions. 2 Final Report on the Audit of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Retirement Services Disability Process, (Report No. 4A-RS-00-19-038), issued October 30, 2020.
OPM should continue to work on obtaining the necessary resources and technology to ensure that the needs of its customers and stakeholders are met.
Retirement Services’ Customer Service
The OIG continues to receive contacts and complaints from Federal annuitants and other members of the public who are frustrated by attempts to resolve retirement annuity-related issues with OPM’s Retirement Services’ customer service office. These calls are primarily received by our OIG fraud hotline.
We had previously suggested OPM restore its ombudsman office as a resource for beneficiaries to receive assistance with common issues that were frequently the subject of calls the OIG Hotline received. While this office was reportedly restarted in May 2021, there remains no active ombudsman currently. Its public-facing email is not active and links on the OPM website associated with the ombudsman return HTTP error 404 (an error commonly returned for a broken or dead link on a website).
We have received information from OPM that the hiring process for an ombudsman is ongoing. We hope that there will be positive effects on customer satisfaction when that process is complete and OPM has that additional venue to address its customer service issues.
Legacy systems and manual processes that we have identified in previous Top Management Challenges reports continue to contribute to customer service issues by increasing the backlog of cases and long processing times that make interim payments necessary. Concerns about interim annuity payments is one of the main topics of the misplaced customer service calls we receive.
The need for a modern, digital retirement system is still essential. It also remains a huge challenge for OPM. Additional customer service staffing and improved operational processes are areas that Retirement Services has noted as viable ways to increase customer satisfaction. The OIG agrees with this, but it is a solution requiring support from Congressional partners and strong planning and development to implement effectively.
Retirement Services’ Call Center Issue and Status
We raised the issue of management concerns regarding the Retirement Services’ call center, which supports Federal annuitants, in our FY 2020 Top Management Challenges report. The concerns arose from widespread reports of inadequate service and that Retirement Services routinely limited the number of calls placed in the answer queue.
Since then, OPM has improved call center operations by simplifying its Services Online website and improving outreach. This has resulted in reduced call volume for routine inquiries and requests to reset account passwords. OPM’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) also successfully implemented the Retirement Services ‘call center as a service’ initiative, which involved transition to a commercial cloud-based call center system. This will provide an integrated host of communication channels such as telephone, web, chat, email, and text. This type of solution can also resolve customer issues, track customer interactions, and provide various performance metrics to improve overall customer service without a heavy investment in hardware and maintenance.
OPM’s OCIO also informed us of increased collaboration with Retirement Services to improve operations and the customer experience. For example, a modernized annuity calculator was recently piloted, and an enhanced Online Retirement Application system is being developed. As discussed elsewhere, modernizing the retirement process will have an impact on OPM’s ability to provide better customer support to annuitants. While progress is being made, it remains to be seen whether OPM can secure the necessary resources and work together toward a long-term solution that is in the best interest of Federal annuitants and their families.
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