I will keep going. I have more cases here.
A constituent, after their last day of work, continually received their pay deposit for over five months. Again, it's a nice problem to have unless you're honest and you want to return the money and not get taxed. While the constituent has done everything in their power to work with the Phoenix pay system to get this issue resolved, the issue is still ongoing. It has affected their ability to file their taxes properly.
This has caused extreme stress, and it is taking countless hours of their personal time to try to properly resolve the issues. They've been instructed only that they will need to repay the gross amount even though they only received the net amount. It will balance out when they do their taxes, but in the meantime, they're being inconvenienced further by needing to repay money that they never received. You can imagine that the taxes deducted over five months would come to a significant amount. To date, the pay centre has still not provided them with the accurate amount that needs to be repaid. This is now a full year after the individual stopped working for the government.
In another case, a constituent has not had any EI premiums deducted in 2017. They are concerned that they will now need to pay the EI maximum contribution when they file their taxes in 2017. There's also a concern that this could affect insurable hours on the record of employment should they fall ill and need to take sick leave. This error was noticed by the constituent, who has spent a considerable amount of personal time in trying to get this issue resolved.
In case three, a constituent retired in January 2017. He had to wait until this week for his severance pay and an additional 400 hours of leave time that was to be paid to him. He retired in January, and this information is from just three weeks ago. He worked closely with the pay centre, but was told that he was not a hardship case so his only option was to wait in a queue to get this issue resolved. He is retired and not getting his severance payment and his pay, so I'm not sure how that is not a hardship case, but this is something that is going on every single day with our public servants.
There are others. There are several cases specifically for individuals who worked in Correctional Services Canada. They include issues with inaccurate deductions, not receiving top-up pay, being paid at the wrong pay level even though they were working at a higher pay level, and not being able to add children to the benefit plan in a timely manner, so on top of all this, they're having to pay out of pocket for dentists and pharmaceuticals.
Here's a comment from one of the staffers: “There's no system in place that allows an MP to assist with Phoenix cases that are not classified as hardship cases. So we have someone who retired and it was nine months and they still haven't received severance pay and 400 hours' leave, but that's not termed ‘hardship’. So even when they are a hardship in reality, they're not termed 'hardship'. It's a catch-22. The constituency offices cannot deal with anything and push things up the line that are not called 'hardship' by the government.”
I think it's very much like this attack on diabetes sufferers. You have diabetes but you're no longer getting the tax credit for it until you actually suffer for it, but if you suffer for it, you don't get it.
Our office has been informed that the only real option constituents have is to submit their complaint and wait till it's their turn. There are over 200,000 individual cases outstanding already. I can't imagine how long it's going to take to, quote, wait their turn.
I have another couple of cases here.
This individual says: “From April 8, 2016 to December 31, I was on parental leave. However, my ROE was not sent to EI until the end of November. I ended up receiving regular pay the whole time. In December 2016 I received EI benefits in the amount of $18,200. I sent the money back to the Receiver General per the Phoenix call centre. Please note I was informed to return ASAP so I would not be issued a T4E, which subsequently was issued. In April I received a phone call from the pay and benefits adviser stating I was overpaid approximately $50,000 by regular pay instead of EI and parental top-up and I'd have to pay the gross amount back even though I only received $40,000 net pay.”
Again, it's overpaying by x amount, reducing the taxes.... You're getting overpaid by $50,000 and you're only getting net $40,000, but the government is asking for the full $50,000 back.
The individual continues: “In addition, the pay adviser informed me that I was owed $30,000 gross in top-up pay for my parental leave for my benefits. I requested that these monies be kept by the employer because I was already owed around $50,000 and the gross amount could be applied to my overpayment. Unfortunately, the payment was already sent. I was taxed at the 50% tax bracket because of payment received in one lump sum, receiving $15,500 from that. If I return the extra monies received in 2016, why would they not reverse this pay situation?”
It again goes back to the T4s, which we were told a year and a half ago not to worry about because everything was in hand.
I want to go over one last one. I have about 40 more, but I see we're losing time and I want to leave some time for my colleagues to comment on this.
It reads: “My name is Michael. I work for the Department of National Defence at Borden, classification is PIP09C2. Phoenix no longer considers me a C2 even though that has not changed in the 34 years of service, and I'll be turning 65 on August 5. I would very much like to plan my retirement, but I'm being held hostage, so to speak, by Phoenix. When I talk to the Phoenix pension people and do a pension calculation estimate, all that is seen is the wrong information from the Phoenix pay system. When I retire from the civil service neither I nor my personal support clerk will have Internet access to Phoenix. Thank you for listening to my issues. I'd like to get this fixed and move on with my life.”
I know that I've used up a lot of time, but quite literally these are only about a third of the issues. Half of these are issues right from my office. On the one from Borden, people have reached out to me because their MPs in their areas have not been able to get Phoenix and because they've seen us on committee and have asked us to take it up.
I'm going to turn over the—