In my June columns, I talked about how planning pays off when you are getting ready to retire and how your agency processes your retirement application.
Here, I’ll describe the Office of Personnel Management’s role in converting your application into a retirement annuity. I’ll also provide some insights about how long it will take before you receive your first annuity payment.
If your agency met OPM’s processing standards, your retirement application will have cleared your agency’s personnel and payroll offices in 30 days or fewer after your retirement date. However, staffing shortages in your agency personnel and payroll offices or a flood of retirement applications could slow that process.
As a rule, agencies notify former employees when their retirement package has been shipped to OPM. Until that happens, refer any questions about your application’s status to your former personnel or payroll office.
Once OPM’s Retirement Operation Center in Boyers, Pa., gets your retirement package, it will send you a written acknowledgment and a retirement claim number. That number will be preceded by the letters CSA, shorthand for “civil service annuitant.”
If it’s clear from your file that you are entitled to an annuity, OPM will authorize interim annuity payments. OPM’s director recently stepped in to increase the amount of those interim payments to more accurately reflect the full amount you are due.
OPM tries to authorize interim payments within 10 days after it receives your retirement package. That’s a little more than five weeks after the date on which you retired. However, it can miss that target. With buyouts and early outs generating spikes in workload, the gap between the receipt of your application and your being put in interim pay can stretch out.
Once interim pay has been authorized, Treasury Department processing takes another eight to 10 business days. You’ll usually receive your first interim payment within six or seven weeks after you retire.
Final adjudication of your case doesn’t take place in Boyers. If there are additional questions to be resolved about your application, they will be dealt with in OPM’s Office of Retirement Benefits in Washington. In general, when problems arise, they involve questions about whether certain kinds of civilian government service are creditable for retirement purposes. If that’s the case, you may have to provide additional documentation.
When your file is complete, your regular annuity amount will be calculated and full payment authorized. Any money you are owed from being in interim pay status will be included in your first regular annuity payment.
Concurrently, OPM will send you an annuity statement and other information concerning your retirement benefits. Keep this statement. If you apply for a large loan, you may be asked to provide a copy of the statement as proof of your entitlement to an annuity.
OPM’s longtime goal is to complete the entire retirement review process within 30 to 35 days of the date it receives your retirement package from your payroll office. The process now can take many months. That’s usually because a case is complicated or because OPM’s staff is inundated by retirement applications from employees who have been offered buyouts or a chance to retire early.
If you have questions about the status of your retirement application once it has reached OPM, contact OPM’s Retirement Information Office at retire@opm.gov or 888-767-6738, TDD 800-878-5707. Be sure to have your CSA number.
If you have not received your CSA number, and your agency payroll office hasn’t notified you that your package was sent to OPM, contact the payroll office and ask for the number of the Register of Separations and Transfer it was on, the transmittal and mailing dates, and the payroll office identification number. If your package has been sent to OPM, the above information will allow OPM to quickly track it down.
When everything is working well, your transition from employment to retirement should be simple and straightforward. In other cases, remember that the heat is on from the Congress, agency heads and top management at OPM to get the job done quickly and right.
17 Comments
Hello, maybe you can help me…
I am a former spouse of a Civil Service Retiree. I have been awarded a 50% community interest in his pension as well as a survivor benefit election.
My problem is I need a CSA number before OPM will give me any information on the monetary award and nobody seems able to help me find out this number. I have not received any notifications regarding this.
My ex-husband returned to his former job as an independent consultant.
Is there any way to obtain this elusive CSA number as his ex-spouse? I do not know if he has started collecting his pension or if he received a CSA number, which he certainly wouldn’t share with me.
Thank you for your time.
According to OPM, all you need to do is provide them with your former spouse’s Social Security number.
Hello,
I am asking how long after approved letter for a medical retirement does it take to get back pay and my annuity pay will start. It’s been 5 months and I have not heard anything. Could you please help me.
Thank you,
Jerry Roberts
Since you have heard nothing, I suggest you write to the OPM’s Director at the following address:
Dale Cabaniss, Director
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
1900 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20415
In that letter, provide your full name, date of birth amd CSA number, if one has been assigned. Then ask for his help in getting you on the annuity roll and providing your back pay.
I was approved in August, so it’s been 6 months for me. I followed up with DC OPM Office and was told my file was finally assigned to a Legal Admin Specialist on February 4th. Any idea how long it should take now to get interim pay and my annuity? Any insight you can offer is appreciated.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how long it will take.
Hello,
I am extremely confused about whether or not my SF 3107 application was approved for Discontinued Service/Immediate Retirement following termination — I am hoping you can provide some advice or insight.
Background:
(1) In Aug 2018, I was terminated from my APF federal employment position with a charge of Failure to Follow policy (this was the one and only disciplinary action levied against me during my entire federal career, and prior to termination I had no formal/informal disciplinary actions and or performance issues — zero). I am 51 years of age, and have 30 years of credible federal service, SCD April 1988;
(2) In Sep 2018, I was advised that I would be/should be eligible for Discontinued/Immediate Retirement and to complete/submit SF3107 form — which I did;
(3) In Oct/Nov 2018, while following up with OCHR Retirement Benefits, on the status of my application I was verbally advised that that OCHR completed their processing of my SF 3107 retirement application/package, however there were notes in my file that OCHR DID NOT recommend authorization for Discontinued Service Retirement, they stated there were no notes as to the reason why OCHR did not recommend my package not be approved — but that my package was forwarded to OPM for final decision.
(4) On Nov 21, 2018, I received a Retirement Services Reference Card, with a CSA Claim number from OPM. The first paragraph of the form letter states, “We will begin to process your retirement application. We will begin interim payments based on your qualifying service as quickly as possible. Please be aware that:
* If you applied for a deferred annuity at age 62 or after or were in receipt of payments from the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs on the date of your retirement, we will notify you if you are eligible to receive interim payments…”
(5) On Dec 5, 2018, while accessing my checking account I noticed there was a direct deposit made into my account labeled – OPM1 TREAS 310 XXCIV SERV, from the Department of Treasure’s Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.
NOTE: From the time I received the OPM form with my Retirement Services Reference Card, in Nov, until I received direct deposit payment, in Dec, I did not receive any further correspondence from OPM regarding the status of my SF 3107 Discontinued Service/Immediate Retirement package stating if it had been approved or disapproved.
MY CONFUSION: Because the OPM form letter, containing the Retirement Services Reference Card, did not state that my SF 3107 application/package was approved for Discontinued Service Retirement, it only stated my retirement package was received and being processed… does this mean:
(1) that because I received a deposit/payment (possibly an interim payment) on Dec 5th, that my SF 3107 Discontinued Retirement package was APPROVED? Would I receive a payment if the package was disapproved?
-and-
(2) IF the request for SF 3107 Discontinued Service Retirement was disapproved, would OPM automatically default and review my SF 3107 application package as a Deferred Retirement application (as I have not decided if I would want to accept Deferred Retirement vice taking the payout of all my FERS contributions)? And also would I receive an interim annuity payment with Deferred Retirement?
This is all very confusing.
I have called the 1-888-767-6738 Retirement Services number for assistance and am now waiting , 10-20 days, for someone to call me back.
Any possible insight you may have is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
When OPM receives a retirement package that appears to meet all the requirements, it begins making interim payments. These continue until it can complete the review process and finalize the case. When it does, it will begin making full annuity payments, plus a catch-up payment to cover the difference between the interim payments and the correct amount.
Sounds like you were approved. You should be able to establish an account at Retirement Services online to check the progress. https://www.servicesonline.opm.gov/
I don’t think I would tell OPM that you “think OCHR recommended disapproval.” OPM is the decision-maker on retirements. Just ask them “am I approved from Discontinued Service Retirement?” You don’t want to create a problem where none exists.
I thought employees who were separated for cause on charges of misconduct or delinquency were not eligible for DSR.
I hope M doesn’t spend the money she is getting until she knows for certain her DSR is approved — she might have to pay it back. But her inquiry to OPM needs to be short, very short, far shorter than her posting above.
What ever happened did they just do a onetime payment or paid you until you got a lump sum?
p.s. You do not want to take a refund of your FERS contributions. That is next to nothing to compared to a lifetime annuity. It wouldn’t be a deferred retirement, since you have at least 25 years in FERS; the criteria is “25 years at any age.” It would be an immediate annuity, for life.
Why does it take 4 months to process a deferred retirement. I’ve sent my application in to OPM 4 times. 4! Each time they claim not to have it, yet I have a postal receipt indicating delivery. Now, I’m being told that I will receive nothing for at least 4 months. I sent it in 60 days prior to my MRA and retirement. I meet all the other criteria. 16+ years of federal service. Plus, they’re nasty at the 888 number.
I would like to read an expert reply to the question by: Patricia J on September 4, 2019 1:49 pm; It sounds like a difficult case, but it still deserves an expert answer, doesn’t it? You see, I too have experienced serial difficulty with OPM retirement….. I applied by mail late August 2018 and OPM received my application on Sept. 4, 2018, and requested annuity start date of Dec. 1, 2018 for a Postponed or Deferred Retirement (MRA+10 eligible w/ SCD 11 Aug. 2002; Resigned Jun. 2015; total 12 yrs. 10 mos. of continuous service, one agency, one station). I received my CSA number, case was dated Dec. 4, 2018. Today is Oct. 3, 2019 and I still haven’t received a dime! Followed up several times during the duration, received a different answer and forecast each time. Am now over 62 yo. so that last excuse has been exhausted. Recently called, received more precise info this time… was told it is with “case manager”, assigned Jun. 4, 2019 and can be “elevated” only after case manager has had it for 4 months which will be tomorrow. Still though, I haven’t received a reply from OPM for my last written (repeated) inquiry of three months ago – rude! Never received a reply to the voicemail message I was invited to leave [with case manager?] two months ago, and haven’t yet received a reply to either my email message or voicemail message left 2 days ago with the now identified case manager. If this delay continues much longer, they are flat out denying my lawful rights to my property, no?
If you are tired of waiting, you have two choices. Write to your member of Congress or OPM’s acting director, U.S. OPM. 1900 E Street NW, Washington, DC, 20415. Keep the letter short. You applied for a deferred annuity, received your CSA number on Dec. 4, 2018, have followed up several times but have not yet received your annuity. Be sure to include your full name, date of birth, and your Social Security and CSA numbers.
Have been receiving Opm annuity payments for 4 yrs. This time when the check arrived it was 1/2 the usual amount. Is it because I just turned 62 and applied for Social Security benefits or just an error? Who would be best to contact.
Many Thanks,
RM
5/31/20
Also Please Do Not Post Full Name – I just accidently sent you this question before with my full name. PLEASE exclude the first post I sent. Thank YOU.
At age 62 your annuity would have automatically been reduced by the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while you were covered by CSRS Offset or FERS. That would be true whether or not you applied for a Social Security benefit.