The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ended paper processing for more than 95% of federal retirement applications, completing the agency’s transition to a fully digital retirement process.
OPM announced the “Last Day of Paper” in a July 1 press release, saying nearly all retirement applications are now submitted and processed electronically through the Online Retirement Application (ORA).
According to officials, the transition enables retirees, agency human resources (HR) offices, payroll providers, and OPM to work from a single electronic record throughout the retirement process, reducing delays caused by paper handling and manual transfers.
“Today we’re closing the book on one of the federal government’s oldest paper processes,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said. “For decades, retirement applications were literally mailed around the country before reaching OPM. That’s over.”
OPM said ORA has processed more than 155,000 retirement applications over the past year after serving only a few hundred users during its initial rollout.
As part of the “last day” milestone, OPM is also launching new capabilities designed to accelerate retirement processing, including:
- A new pre-retirement application that allows employees and agency HR offices to complete much of the retirement process before an employee’s separation date
- Earlier processing of retirement applications while final payroll information is still being finalized, reducing unnecessary delays
- A commitment to issue a retiree’s first pension payment within seven days of retirement for applicants who submit a complete retirement package by their separation date
“By moving retirement online, we’re delivering faster decisions, better service, and greater transparency for federal employees while modernizing an essential government function,” Kupor said.