U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce
Life Events and Your Retirement and Insurance Benefits (for Annuitants)Section III: How OPM Processes Your Application For Retirement Shortly after it receives your application for retirement, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Retirement Operations Center, Office of Retirement Programs, will send you an acknowledgment and your retirement claim number. Your claim number will begin with the letters "CSA" (Civil Service Annuity). This number is very important because you will need to refer to it any time you call or write OPM about your claim. [Note: If you are retiring on disability, the fact that OPM sends you a CSA claim number does not mean that you have been found eligible for disability retirement.] If you need to contact OPM before you receive your CSA number, be sure to provide them with the following information about the Register on which your retirement package was sent: the Register number, its transmittal and mailing dates, and the payroll office number. This information is available at your payroll office as discussed in Section II. The Retirement Operations Center will review your application package (and any retirement records OPM has on file from service at a previous agency) and assemble them into a retirement file. If your entitlement to annuity is clear, OPM will authorize recurring interim annuity payments to provide you with an income until your claim is completed. If necessary, OPM will request additional information to develop any incomplete service history or insurance documentation that was not provided by your agency which may be needed to process your claim. Interim annuity payments are usually between 85% and 95% of your regular monthly payment after deductions -- such as for health insurance. The OPM goal is to authorize the Department of the Treasury to make payment within 5 work days after receiving your retirement records. The time frame within which you can expect to receive your first interim payment can vary from about 5 days to 2 to 3 weeks. The length of time it takes for your payment to come depends on whether your agency transfers retirement information via electronic medium or only on paper. If your retirement information comes to OPM electronically, OPM would usually deposit your first payment to your account in your financial organization within 5 work days after receiving your retirement information. Please note that by law OPM must deposit your payment directly, unless you qualify for an exception to this requirement. If your agency is submitting only paper records and you qualify for payment by check, it may take as long as 3 weeks for the first check to come. This amount of time is needed for someone at OPM to review your information and compute the amount of the interim payment, for the Department of the Treasury to print and mail a check, and for the Postal Service to deliver the check to you. OPM will send you a notice informing you of the amount of your interim payments. If Federal income tax is withheld, the notice will show the amount. If you are enrolled in the health benefits or life insurance programs, the notice will not show the cost of your enrollment. Instead, the gross interim payment amount will be reduced to cover the insurance cost. Annuity benefits accrue through the end of the month and are payable on the first business day of the following month. Once interim payments are authorized, they continue until final adjudication of your application for retirement is complete. After the Retirement Operations Center completes initial actions, it forwards your retirement file to a claims adjudication office. Your case will then be assigned to a retirement benefits specialist for the final adjudication of your application for retirement. The benefits specialist will review your entitlement to benefits and will follow up to obtain any outstanding documentation needed to process the application for retirement. When your retirement file is determined to be complete and accurate, the benefits specialist will determine the amount of your monthly annuity benefit and will authorize payment of your regular annuity benefit. The processing time to complete the final adjudication of claims will vary, of course, according to whether the retirement package your agency submits is fully documented and accurate. You can help with this process by actively participating in the documentation of your retirement package. The volume of work on hand at OPM also affects the length of time it takes to complete final adjudication. OPM's goal is to complete the final adjudication of fully documented claims within 45 days from the date of receipt from the payroll offices. Incomplete retirement claims can take much longer because OPM will have to write or call the agency that has the needed information and then wait for a response. OPM will send you an Annuity Statement and other informational material concerning your retirement benefits when your regular annuity payments are authorized. If you have questions concerning the status of your application for retirement, you may call OPM's Retirement Information Office at (202) 606-0500. (However, you should not use this telephone number unless your agency has sent your retirement package to OPM.) The TDD number is (202) 606-0551. If your agency has not given you information about the register on which your retirement package was sent to OPM, contact your payroll office for this information before you contact OPM. (See page 7 for a complete discussion of the information OPM must have to find your records before you have your retirement claim number.) This pamphlet provides highlights of the retirement process for the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees' Retirement System. For more information, contact your personnel office. Available from your servicing personnel office or by calling the Social Security Administration at (800) 772-1213:
You may obtain copies of the pamphlets listed below from your personnel office, from the OPM's Website (http://www.opm.gov/asd), or from OPM ONLINE (OPM's electronic bulletin board) at (202) 606-4800. To access OPM ONLINE, your communications software should be set to the following:
Baud: Up to 28,800 The pamphlets in the Retirement Facts Series, which provide more detailed information about the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), are:
Pamphlets applicable to employees in either the Civil Service Retirement System or the Federal Employees' Retirement System are:
Publications for employees who are under the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) are:
For employees who are eligible to transfer to the FERS:
Pamphlets on the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Life Insurance Programs are:
Available from the Internal Revenue Service by calling (800) 829-1040
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