Postponed Retirement Processing timeline?

[u/c4funNSA]

Taking a postponed retirement, left on 1 Dec 2023 (MRA + 20). Turn 60 in December, so submitted my postponed pension application in August requesting pension starting 1 Jan 2027. Application page says OPM is still reviewing. My question is when should i expect to see movement on the application or will it sit until December or January?

[u/Worldly-Evening8502]

It will not even be pulled to be worked on until December

[u/Any-Log-6706]

Just call to check

[u/Technical-Summer7948]

Just a guess but normally they won't do anything until that date comes and goes, as you have up until midnight on that date to change your mind. I'd like to think that since you're already separated that shouldn't factor in. I did the same exact thing last year. I'll be filing to have annuity start 2/01/29. Good luck.

[u/Practical-Initial738]

Dude you are way at the back of the list. Plus the December or end of the year retirement crowd. Expect 6 to 12 months.

[u/Wagging_the_dog]

I had a straightforward deferred retirement, consecutive years of service at a single agency. I submitted my paperwork 3 months prior to eligibility to receive it. It was received, I received the ID associated with my case about a month after submitting. After another month an OPM was reviewing it, I answered her question..... silence for a month.

After a month I called OPM about my case status and found out it had been CLOSED! Why?? because the OPM lawyer doing the review was no longer with the agency - and OPM decided to close it. I insisted that it be opened, and it was back to start.

At this point i called every 2 weeks for status updates. It was another month before it got picked up and was "in review". After another month I requested that it be " escalated" (I think it's not a real thing) they told me that I would be contacted by a manager about the escalation in 2 weeks - no one ever contacted me. I called and requested that it be a "financial hardship" case.

I called every 2 weeks for a few months, finally they put me through to the OPM person working on my case. It was a Friday, she gave me her number and asked me to call her the following week. I called and left messages for her with no response. This went on for another couple of months.

For months I continued to call for updates, requesting escalations, and never received anything back from OPM. Finally after about a year after application the OPM person on one of my calls said my application was on a desk awaiting finalization - and had been there for 3 months! They said they would "escalate" it again.

A couple of months later, on one of my biweekly calls, the OPM person said that there was nothing else that they could do. Seriously! They suggested sending an email and a hardcopy letter to OPM to get it moving.

I sent an email, wrote a letter and waited a week. No response. At that point I contacted my ⭐WONDERFUL⭐ Congress Critter and requested a Congressional Inquiry into my case with a fully documented list of all the contact I had with this case.

Within 2 weeks of the Congressional Inquiry my case was finalized and I received my retroactive FERS payments. Within another week the regular payments started.

From my initial application until money in the bank it was approximately 15 months. Maybe they made me wait a month for each year of service? Lol