What Takes Place After You Apply For Retirement
Have you ever wondered what takes place when you submit your retirement paperwork? This article briefly explains the process.
After your retirement paperwork is submitted to the Office of Personnel Management they will notify you when it is received and give you a claim identification number. The number has seven digits and followed by the letters “CSA”. When you contact OPM about your retirement annuity, use this claim number. When OPM begins to process your claim they will:
- Look over your paperwork to see if any missing information is needed to continue to process the retirement documents.
- OPM will determine your continued health and life insurance coverage and your eligibility for an annuity.
- The actual amount of your annuity will be computed by OPM.
OPM will send you paperwork about your survivor benefit election. This paperwork gives authority to any annuity payment and gives you information about your annuity.
Retirement annuity payments are received the first business day of the next month with the amount covering the preceding month.
A properly completed retirement application usually takes about an average of 55 days to process. 55 days is the average number if no corrections or additional information is needed. If there are any corrections or additional information needed it may take an extra 3 to 4 weeks to process your retirement paperwork. If there are problems in contacting you the time could be even longer. Please allow extra time if there is a court order awarding retirement or a survivor benefit to a former spouse.
OPM list some common mistakes when filing for retirement:
- Errors on submitted forms. Remember your retirement forms should not have any scratch-outs, white-outs, or line-outs. There should be no alterations on submitted forms.
- There is a failure to complete a Spouse’s Consent to Survivor Election portion on the retirement application if choosing less than the full survivor benefits. Remember the consent form must be notarized.
- Missing information concerning the spouse. That includes those that are separated.
- The employee name, Social Security number, and date of birth did not match OPM records on file.
- Paperwork was not included to show the reason for a suspension of the federal employee health benefits program coverage.
Remember, the OPM retirement packet has nothing to do with the filing of Social Security benefits or Thrift Savings Plan investments. Those programs must be filed separately from the retirement paperwork.
For questions, contact The Benefit Coordinators.
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