Federal retirement claims drop in September

The current retirement claims backlog is at 23,500, which dropped for the fourth straight month.

October 9, 2025 9:36 am

< a min read

The number of federal employees filing retirement claims in September was the lowest all year. Just over 6,300 employees submitted their retirement paperwork to the Office of Personnel Management. At the same time, OPM also processed the fewest number of current claims in September, just over 7,900. Despite the lower number of claims, OPM said it took six days longer, on average, in September than in August to process claims. The current retirement claims backlog is at 23,500, which dropped for the fourth straight month.The Merit Systems Protection Board officially has a quorum again. The Senate confirmed James Woodruff II as a board member Tuesday evening, in a vote of 51 to 47 along party lines. Normally, Woodruff’s confirmation would mean the MSPB could start issuing decisions on any cases that had been petitioned by an employee or agency. But due to the government shutdown, the effects of a lack of quorum will drag on. During a funding lapse, MSPB ceases all operations and cannot process any federal employee appeals. Democratic lawmakers are also looking to protect federal employees and contractors from foreclosures, evictions and loan defaults. The Federal Employee Civil Relief Act, if passed would also protect against having a car repossessed or losing their insurance because of missed premiums. The bill has the backing of several federal employee unions and associations.The IRS is sending mass furlough notices to employees and shuttering most of its operations. The IRS plans to keep 53% of its employees working, as the shutdown enters its second week. A majority of them work in public-facing taxpayer services positions. A notice sent to all IRS employees states furloughed and excepted IRS employees will receive back pay once the shutdown ends. That’s after the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday floated the possibility that furloughed federal employees would not be guaranteed back pay.]]>

Members of Congress are urging utility companies to give federal employees some leeway on their bills. Eight Democratic senators are asking for federal employees’ water, electricity and internet not to be shut off, even if they aren’t able to pay. The letters that were sent to several major utility companies come as hundreds of thousands of federal employees are currently furloughed and more are working without pay under the shutdown. House Democrats are pressing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring lawmakers back to Washington early next week to vote on the Pay Our Troops bill. In a letter to Johnson, the group urged the speaker to bring the legislation to the House floor for a vote before Oct. 15, when nearly 3 million military families will miss their paycheck if the shutdown continues. Johnson dismissed House Democrats, saying the House already “had that vote.” “It’s called the continuing resolution. House Democrats are clamoring to get back here and have another vote because some of them want to get on record and say they’re for paying the troops. We already had that vote.” The Senate this week confirmed two top officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Jack Dever is now serving as general counsel at ODNI. Dever started out his career as a signals intelligence officer and later served as assistant general counsel at the FBI and assistant U.S. attorney handling national security cases. The Senate also confirmed Chris Fox to serve as inspector general of the intelligence community. Fox is an Air Force veteran who has served in top posts at the Justice Department and the CIA.GSA added more vendors to the OASIS+ contract. More than 100 new vendors have a spot on the OASIS+ professional services multiple award contract. GSA announced the addition of 118 contractors, of which 112 are small businesses, on Monday. Across the seven domains under OASIS+, management and advisory services and technical and engineering services remain the most popular, with 72 new awardees each. GSA said it will issue a final notice to proceed for these new awardees no later than Oct. 17. This was the third set of awards under OASIS+ since April.Throughout October, MILITARY STAR card holders can shop at commissaries worldwide with 0% interest and no payments for three months. The limited-time offer is designed to help provide some additional financial relief during the government shutdown. The MILITARY STAR card is available to service members and their families, DoD civilians, retirees, Purple Heart recipients and eligible veterans. Congress created the program to provide affordable credit solutions to the military community. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is turning to artificial intelligence to help patent applicants. USPTO is launching an Automated Search Pilot Program to flag potential prior art issues for patent applicants. Prior art searches help inventors understand what’s already been patented. But USPTO said an exponential growth of prior art and the pace of technological innovation make it increasingly difficult to quickly discover the most relevant prior art. USPTO is using an internal AI tool to quickly search for prior art as part of the pilot.
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Federal retirement claims drop in September

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