Former CRA officer destroyed by Phoenix Pay System

A former employee of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), who was forced to retire early to care for his ailing wife, has been experiencing real financial hardship since the Phoenix Pay System deprived him of his money at the worst possible time.

“Phoenix swallowed my salary for my last two years of work before my retirement. Phoenix swallowed my last salary when I retired. Phoenix cut my pension in half,” said a retiree from the Canada Revenue Agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Phoenix ruined my finances and my credit. I was always on the last dime,” the man sighed angrily at his former employer.

In federal parlance, the word “Phoenix” has nothing to do with the name given to the magnificent bird, a payment system developed by IBM that caused some federal civil servants to lose their pay checks.

However, yesterday, one of them, Ketu, poured out his heart to tell his suffering, which will never end.

After 30 years at CRA, his transition to retirement was difficult because of the many failures of the Phoenix pay system.

Two years before his retirement, he decided to continue working three days a week to keep his ailing wife confined to an armchair.

“She fell often. I had to take several hours from my sick leave to help her,” he said.

“She was on an oxygen machine. She couldn’t do anything anymore. I did everything,” he gasped.

To be with her, he announced to the CRA that he would gradually retire, staying at the post a few days a week.

This is where the difficulties of the Phoenix pay system begin.

“At some point, bang! I got half pay, three-quarters pay, another three days. It was hell,” he recalled.

“When I retired, there was no salary. My last two weeks of work were unpaid. I had to borrow money”, he continues.

To make matters worse, Phoenix creates a “$10,000 fake loan” for him. And despite the proposal with the CRA, we continue to butcher our checks.

“The system continued to chew up my tax refunds and retroactive pay increases,” he said.

After four online complaints to the CRA, three letters to the minister and one demand letter, he finally received a letter of apology saying his loan was written off.

Joined by News magazineThe Canada Revenue Agency was unable to respond to questions yesterday Log.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) could not say how many complaints it has received from Quebecers on the matter because the department “does not track payroll movements by geographic region”.