Federal retirement backlog leaves thousands of postal workers without benefits
CBS News Texas has learned that dozens of retired United States Postal workers have been waiting months to receive their retirement benefits, with little to no explanation for the delays.
In the same Waxahachie neighborhood, he once served as a postal worker, Billy Wright now questions the 29 years he dedicated to the job.
"I feel like they just forget about you. It feels like you're at the hands of a bureaucracy," Wright said. "That is a little bit of a disrespect to me, you know I served 9 and a half years in the military before this, and I never seen people treated that way."
The 60-year-old retired from the United States Postal Service in November. He said he's been waiting more than five months for his retirement benefits, with little progress.
"It's waiting with nobody telling you what's going on," said Wright. "No one answers your questions; you can't get a hold of anybody. I try to call an OPM. I get a message saying they cannot help me."
While Wright has received about $400 in interim pay, he says it's not enough to survive, forcing him to take on a side job.
"I'm having trouble making my bills, and I've almost lost my family's automobiles. My rent is $1,600 a month, you know, and we've been doing ins and outs, and I've been borrowing money out of my retirement and from friends and relatives," Wright said.
79-year-old Judy Moreland also spent more than 25 years with the postal service. While Moreland receives some retirement pay, she's been trying since October to access her workers' compensation benefits.
"They are giving me the run around," Moreland said. "To me, there's no excuse. This is something the government does. They do not rush. When you owe them, you have to pay them right away; when they owe you, they take their time. It's a burden on me, a big one, because I have bills."
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, oversees all federal retirement benefits. Scott Kupor, the director of OPM, tells CBS News Texas that they are aware of the issues and that thousands of retirees nationwide are facing similar delays.
The two main reasons: the postal service's shift from a paper-based system to an electronic system recently, and a surge in federal retirements.
"Unfortunately, this system for a long time, I think, has just not served retirees well, and we are hard at work on it, but we recognize we have work to do," said Kupor.
Both Moreland and Wright filed paper applications, which OPM said can take 90 to 100 days to process. Electronic filings cut the wait time by more than half.
Kupor said they are seeing more than double the number of federal retirees filing for benefits. According to federal data, claims went from 112,679 in January and September of 2025 to 121,833 in just the last six months, from October 2025 to March 2026.
"We obviously knew this was coming," Kupor said. "We knew the manual paper-based solution was not a, it's not a good solution, period, it's certainly not a good solution in a year where you have this level of growth. We are doing everything we can to speed that up."
As for Moreland and Wright, Kupor told CBS News Texas that they have tracked down their cases and are processing them. But Wright said those funds need to come quickly because his livelihood is on the line.
"I'm down to the point where it's breaking time," said Wright. "It's got to be better than this. Take care of your people."
Kupor said something that's helped this year is expanded interim pay. It provides retirees with a portion of their benefits while claims are processed. He said if you need help, you can visit the retirement services page on the OPM website.
Thursday, the U.S. Postal Service also announced it's implementing a cash conservation plan and will temporarily suspend contributions to its pension plans. Otherwise, the USPS chief financial officer says postal operations could suffer.
