IRS Retirees Face Income Shortages Amid Continued Delays in Retirement Payments
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of former Internal Revenue Service employees are experiencing financial hardship due to months-long delays in receiving their retirement payments. Among them are Karen Atchison and Tracy Hinnant, both of whom dedicated decades to federal service before retiring under the government’s Deferred Resignation Program (DRP).
Atchison spent 41 years with the IRS, while Hinnant served 37 and a half years. They chose DRP as the Trump administration pushed to reduce the federal workforce in early 2025. Both women formally retired in late September 2025 and submitted their retirement paperwork timely, expecting retirement benefits to begin shortly after. Instead, their income stopped abruptly, and payments have yet to arrive.
“It’s been months with no income from the federal government,” Hinnant said. She stopped working in May but retired officially on September 30. Meanwhile, Atchison noted that retirees hoped to rely on checks for accrued annual leave while waiting for their annuities, but those payments have also been delayed. “They haven’t even processed us off the agency rolls,” she said.
The IRS has acknowledged the delays, attributing them to an “unusually high volume of September retirements.” The agency confirmed that contractors are assisting with this “unprecedented volume.” The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reported that more than 112,000 federal employees retired during fiscal year 2025, which ended September 30. Over 317,000 workers left the federal government that year as the administration enacted workforce reductions.
Atchison expected about $6,000 per month in retirement benefits, and Hinnant anticipates around $7,000 monthly. In the meantime, Hinnant relies on income from her small business to cover costs, while Atchison depends on help from her adult children and a personal loan. Both recognize that others face more severe difficulties, including some retirees who have lost property due to missed payments.
Scott Kupor, Director of OPM, explained that approximately 29,000 retirement applications remain unprocessed, many still under review by human resources teams to verify service records. About half of the pending cases have been automatically approved through OPM’s intervention. The agency is working alongside IRS staff to resolve the backlog but has not set a concrete timeline for completion.
“We’ve seen about 100,000 retirement applications this year,” Kupor said. “But a significant number, especially within the IRS, are still awaiting final payroll status.”
While some retirees across federal agencies have begun to receive payments, many former IRS employees remain caught in processing delays. The uncertainty over owed retirement annuities and accrued leave payments leaves affected retirees in a state of financial limbo.
As the agencies continue efforts to address this backlog, impacted retirees are left managing bills without the steady income they had anticipated after decades of service.
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