DRP 9-30-25, retiring under VERA status

[Anonymous]

Have your HR started processing the online retirement application if you took the first round of the DRP?

Please share any details. Our agency has not provide any updates on the application procedures, is this normal?

[Anonymous]

It’s going to be a s-show. The process can be weird and slow in normal times, but processing a 30 September retirement this year with a huge group of workers all retiring at once and a reduced OPM. It is unlikely you will see a check for several months. Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones, but I wouldn’t count on it.

[Anonymous]

don't forget the possible shutdown.

[Anonymous]

Yes I completed paperwork back in February for DRP and VERA. My agency HR emailed me this week that my final paperwork package was forwarded to NFC for processing and indicated that after my actual retirement date that will then get forwarded to OPM. There seems to be variety in how different agency do things.

[Anonymous]

My dh took the drp and will retire on 9/30- he is fully eligible and submitted his package this week.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was DRP, VERA, and retire 12/31?

I have so many employees that took it and can't re hire until they're officially off my books, which is end of December.

[Anonymous]

i submitted my pkg before i left the office in feb. i sent a msg to HR handing my paper and he said his manager is reviewing it to make sure. this was two weeks ago. sounded like all is well moving forward. last month of my federal career.

[Anonymous]

Not VERA, regular retirement at the end of the DRP#2. I do expect to wait at least 4 months to see any money sent to my checking account. My concern is about health insurance. I'm keeping my FEHB plan -- but if the paperwork is not processed, my plan won't get the premiums paid. So...? If I need medical care, I'll have to pay upfront and ask to be reimbursed later?!? I don't want Medicare other than Part A since it's free. Healthy but a bit worried...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not VERA, regular retirement at the end of the DRP#2. I do expect to wait at least 4 months to see any money sent to my checking account. My concern is about health insurance. I'm keeping my FEHB plan -- but if the paperwork is not processed, my plan won't get the premiums paid. So...? If I need medical care, I'll have to pay upfront and ask to be reimbursed later?!? I don't want Medicare other than Part A since it's free. Healthy but a bit worried...

Interesting question. I haven’t thought about that but I think you should reach out to your provider and ask. If you do, report back please.

[Anonymous]

My agency's internal website is warning retirees that it could take up to a year to receive the first annuity check. They said longer if there are matters such as child support or alimony involved.

A bit off topic, but I attended a retirement seminar at work earlier this year, and the speaker highlighted that a lot of retirees are not financially prepared to retire. He said many did not have enough in reserves to make it past the first few months and lacked a backup plan for delayed annuity payments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not VERA, regular retirement at the end of the DRP#2. I do expect to wait at least 4 months to see any money sent to my checking account. My concern is about health insurance. I'm keeping my FEHB plan -- but if the paperwork is not processed, my plan won't get the premiums paid. So...? If I need medical care, I'll have to pay upfront and ask to be reimbursed later?!? I don't want Medicare other than Part A since it's free. Healthy but a bit worried...

I went to some seminar and this was the thing they said to be least worried about— it should be seamless. After all if they haven’t processed your paperwork they shouldn’t kick you off.

We had to wait for an online retirement account to be created for us — because of the crush that took from July to now. Now we are waiting for them to process it but I think it will go quicker with the online system.

[Anonymous]

I process retirements for a financial regulatory agency. We allowed DRP retirements to extend up to 12/31/2025, so most of our employees chose that date. We also offered a VERA/VSIP to a group of employees to retire during June. I was really stressed in June and would wake up and go to bed thinking about how many retirements I completed and how many I still need to get done.

December is the busiest month and I have three times the retirement cases as any other December. I've got 20% of the cases done, but it is really slow going with the online retirement application (OPM). First, OPM changed the ORA about a month ago to a brand new system. The new-new ORA had many problems that we had to report to OPM to fix. Some of the problems were so bad that they stopped us from processing the retirement. The new ORA also changes the order of how the retirement is processed, so I'm trying not to create too many new accounts at once. The expectation now is that the HR office will enter the service history when they create the account, and if we don't enter it up-front, it's going to be missing or erroneous and we're going to hear about from our employees.

OPM is quickly fixing the problems with the new ORA, but they are doing it so quickly that they aren't letting the agencies now what they fixed. Also, some of the fixes create additional problems.

This has been the hardest year in HR of my career and I've been in this business a long time. There have been dozens of days where I have woken up and wanted to quit my job. Russell Vought accomplished his mission. He wanted Federal employees to wake up and not want to go in to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I process retirements for a financial regulatory agency. We allowed DRP retirements to extend up to 12/31/2025, so most of our employees chose that date. We also offered a VERA/VSIP to a group of employees to retire during June. I was really stressed in June and would wake up and go to bed thinking about how many retirements I completed and how many I still need to get done.

December is the busiest month and I have three times the retirement cases as any other December. I've got 20% of the cases done, but it is really slow going with the online retirement application (OPM). First, OPM changed the ORA about a month ago to a brand new system. The new-new ORA had many problems that we had to report to OPM to fix. Some of the problems were so bad that they stopped us from processing the retirement. The new ORA also changes the order of how the retirement is processed, so I'm trying not to create too many new accounts at once. The expectation now is that the HR office will enter the service history when they create the account, and if we don't enter it up-front, it's going to be missing or erroneous and we're going to hear about from our employees.

OPM is quickly fixing the problems with the new ORA, but they are doing it so quickly that they aren't letting the agencies now what they fixed. Also, some of the fixes create additional problems.

This has been the hardest year in HR of my career and I've been in this business a long time. There have been dozens of days where I have woken up and wanted to quit my job. Russell Vought accomplished his mission. He wanted Federal employees to wake up and not want to go in to work.

Thank you for your service PP! I had a wonderful HR person assigned to me for my HHS VSIP/VERA retirement this spring. The process was seamless, and I got my first annuity payment in a couple months. Also no problems with FEHB premium payments, and I’ve just started receiving my FERS supplement payments on schedule. I would have assumed that the DRPs retirements would be much easier to process given the much longer lead time, but maybe not if OPM is fiddling with the systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I process retirements for a financial regulatory agency. We allowed DRP retirements to extend up to 12/31/2025, so most of our employees chose that date. We also offered a VERA/VSIP to a group of employees to retire during June. I was really stressed in June and would wake up and go to bed thinking about how many retirements I completed and how many I still need to get done.

December is the busiest month and I have three times the retirement cases as any other December. I've got 20% of the cases done, but it is really slow going with the online retirement application (OPM). First, OPM changed the ORA about a month ago to a brand new system. The new-new ORA had many problems that we had to report to OPM to fix. Some of the problems were so bad that they stopped us from processing the retirement. The new ORA also changes the order of how the retirement is processed, so I'm trying not to create too many new accounts at once. The expectation now is that the HR office will enter the service history when they create the account, and if we don't enter it up-front, it's going to be missing or erroneous and we're going to hear about from our employees.

OPM is quickly fixing the problems with the new ORA, but they are doing it so quickly that they aren't letting the agencies now what they fixed. Also, some of the fixes create additional problems.

This has been the hardest year in HR of my career and I've been in this business a long time. There have been dozens of days where I have woken up and wanted to quit my job. Russell Vought accomplished his mission. He wanted Federal employees to wake up and not want to go in to work.

Are you allowing DRP 1 participants who choose 9/30/25 date to change? Most of them picked 9/30 because they were retirement elibigible already - i.e., they didn't know 12/31 was allowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I process retirements for a financial regulatory agency. We allowed DRP retirements to extend up to 12/31/2025, so most of our employees chose that date. We also offered a VERA/VSIP to a group of employees to retire during June. I was really stressed in June and would wake up and go to bed thinking about how many retirements I completed and how many I still need to get done.

December is the busiest month and I have three times the retirement cases as any other December. I've got 20% of the cases done, but it is really slow going with the online retirement application (OPM). First, OPM changed the ORA about a month ago to a brand new system. The new-new ORA had many problems that we had to report to OPM to fix. Some of the problems were so bad that they stopped us from processing the retirement. The new ORA also changes the order of how the retirement is processed, so I'm trying not to create too many new accounts at once. The expectation now is that the HR office will enter the service history when they create the account, and if we don't enter it up-front, it's going to be missing or erroneous and we're going to hear about from our employees.

OPM is quickly fixing the problems with the new ORA, but they are doing it so quickly that they aren't letting the agencies now what they fixed. Also, some of the fixes create additional problems.

This has been the hardest year in HR of my career and I've been in this business a long time. There have been dozens of days where I have woken up and wanted to quit my job. Russell Vought accomplished his mission. He wanted Federal employees to wake up and not want to go in to work.

Are you allowing DRP 1 participants who choose 9/30/25 date to change? Most of them picked 9/30 because they were retirement elibigible already - i.e., they didn't know 12/31 was allowed.

I would like to know if anyone made the change recently moving to 12/31/25...TY!