One of the 30 Must-Answer Questions for a Federal Employee’s Peace Of Mind asks, “Do you know how long does it take before you get a full retirement check?”   This is the same thing as asking, “Do you know how long it takes for OPM to process a retirement application?” 

I have heard about a disturbing OPM trend lately; it seems to take longer and longer for OPM to get the job done!   OPM’s official position is that, as of July 2011, it takes about 18 weeks to process a retirement application. 

However, federal retirees are reporting that that it has taken as long as one year to get their retirement application process completed, as reported by FedSmith.  And with VERA/VSIPs (early out retirement opportunities) occurring in many agencies, that timeframe may stay that long. 

Did you know that CSRS and FERS retirees do NOT get full retirement pay while the application is being processed?  Instead they get what OPM calls interim retirement pay , which is a percentage of the full monthly retirement payment. 

According to page 43, chapter 40, of OPM’s CSRS/FERS Handbook, the retiree is supposed to get 90% of the regular monthly payment (retirement estimate).  Later, on page 94 of Chapter 40, the percentages of 80%-90% are mentioned in a sample letter.  Yet I’ve heard reports of retirees receiving as little as 31.5% of  their estimated full retirement pay! 

Even worse, retirees do not receive any advance warning of what their interim pay is going to be!  Wow!   As you can see in the OPM link above, there is no mention of a specific amount on the OPM website that I can find. 

That’s hard to handle unless you are prepared for such events.  So I advise that you get prepared. 

I am writing a special report to help you get prepared for interim retirement pay so that you can wait  an entire year, if need be. 

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Watch for next’s week benefits newsletter about the special report, and have a good week!

We’re here to help you think through your benefits and use them wisely!

Mike