David Wolfel – a former civilian architect for the U.S. Navy – was among thousands of federal workers who opted to retire this year amid widespread cuts under the Trump administration.
So in May, before he left to spend his final months of employment on administrative leave, he submitted his retirement paperwork to his agency. Six months later, however, he still doesn’t know when he’ll see his retirement benefits kick in.
“I was anticipating probably late in 2025,” Wolfel told the News4 I-Team. Asked if he still thinks that will happen, he said, “I really don’t know.”
For months, the I-Team has been tracking concerns with processing retirement benefits for thousands of federal workers who left the federal government this year.Roughly 150,000 federal employees took the Deferred Resignation Program buyout this year, according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), with about 100,000 of those leaving on Sept. 30.
The exodus of workers resulted in widespread delays across the system, especially as processing federal retirement claims happens in two stages. After employees submit their paperwork, their agency completes their application and sends it to OPM to finalize and issue payments.
In September, OPM Director Scott Kupor told the I-Team he expects most agencies will process retirement claims within 30 days. He also said he was optimistic OPM could process retirements within 60 days of receiving an agency’s paperwork.
But OPM’s own metrics show the monthly average processing time shot up this summer, rising to an average of 79 days in October, when OPM saw more than 20,000 new retirement claims – almost triple the number of retirement applications it received the month before.
“OPM is processing an unprecedented number of retirements this fall and working around diligently to get benefits out quickly,” Kupor told the I-Team in a statement this month. “More than 75 percent of new retirees are now receiving interim pay within 30 days of OPM receiving their completed application and our goal is that all retirees receive this pay to ensure no one goes without income during processing. We remain focused on returning to a 60-day average processing time, and our new Online Retirement Application is already helping us move faster. We urge retirees to confirm their agency HR and payroll offices have submitted complete applications, that’s the one of the biggest factors in avoiding delays.”
But retirees like Wolfel say it’s become too difficult to reach their HR departments for status updates.
Wolfel showed the I-Team an automated email response from his HR department saying they’re “experiencing an unprecedented high volume of retirement applications” and therefore are “unable” to respond with status updates.
“I’m not trying to bad mouth or say Navy (Human Resources) is not doing their job. It’s a challenged environment,” he said.
Lori Sherdel blamed delays at her former agency for why it took months for her retirement benefits to process.
“With the FDA, it was inefficiency,” said Sherdel, a former management analyst with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Worried widespread cuts would affect her job, Sherdel retired in April after 44 years with the government, but she said records show OPM didn’t receive her claim until June and she didn’t start receiving interim partial pay – about 40% of what she believes she’s owed – until July.
She said OPM has since finalized her claim but she isn’t yet receiving her full benefits and doesn’t know when that will happen. Until then she and her soon-to-retire husband are faced with dipping into his 401K.
“It’s frustrating because it holds off any savings that you might want to put away … You’re basically living off of 40% of what you expected,” she said.
Both Sherdel and Wolfel said they loved working for the federal government and are deeply proud of their service, but the delays and uncertainty surrounding their retirement benefits have caused undue stress.
“Not to say I’ll believe it when I see it, but I do believe it will eventually happen, I think,” Wolfel said.
News4 reached out to the FDA and the Navy about Sherdel and Wolfel’s cases, but they have not yet responded.
Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.
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