{"id":557690,"date":"2026-03-22T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/557690\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:43:09","slug":"public-servant-scared-to-take-governments-retirement-offer-due-to-issues-with-phoenix-pay-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/557690\/","title":{"rendered":"Public servant \u2018scared\u2019 to take government\u2019s retirement offer due to issues with Phoenix pay system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Benay, associate deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada, says public servants looking to take up the government\u2019s early retirement program are right to be worried about potential issues with Phoenix.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A federal public servant says she\u2019s \u201cscared\u201d to take up the government\u2019s early retirement offer after being told that she owes the government about $10,500 because of a mistake in her pay file.<\/p>\n

Jennifer MacDougall got the letter from the pay centre in February but said the situation itself stems back to between 2014 and 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MacDougall was working in a role that was reclassified, meaning she wasn\u2019t getting paid as much as she should have been. In 2019, she eventually received retroactive pay but is now being told that information was incorrectly inputted into the Phoenix system and that she owes the government money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing is just so crazy,\u201d said MacDougall, who is fighting the decision. She said her case is still in processing but that under the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, the federal government has a six-year window to recover a debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s giving me anxiety, it\u2019s giving my husband anxiety and it\u2019s affecting my ability to confidently retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa warns former public servants face collection agencies to recover Phoenix overpayments<\/a><\/p>\n

The most recent federal budget outlined an early retirement incentive as part of the government\u2019s ongoing effort to cut the number of public servants. The program, which is not yet available, is designed to allow federal workers to retire early without a penalty to their pension.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alex Benay, the associate deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada, said at a news conference earlier this month that public servants looking to take up the government\u2019s early retirement program are right to be worried about potential issues with Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say they\u2019re right to be concerned,\u201d Benay said. \u201cI mean, the track record being what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Benay also said the government has a plan to deal with an influx in cases involving severance pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a specialized service that we\u2019ve created within the pay centre to deal specifically with these cases,\u201d Benay said, adding that the service has not yet been deployed. \u201cThe service is ready, people are trained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benay said he has been laid off in the past and that \u201cthe last thing you want is to have to worry about your pay situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benay said the department is also looking at how automation can be used.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel pretty comfortable we\u2019ll be able to manage the volume at this point,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Phoenix system has been mired in problems since it was rolled out in 2016, costing taxpayers about $5 billion, while paying some federal public servants incorrectly \u2013 some being overpaid and others not paid at all.<\/p>\n

Ottawa announced last year it had awarded a 10-year, $350.6 million contract to the system\u2019s replacement Dayforce and implementation is set to begin in 2027.<\/p>\n

The federal government said last year it would expand its use of artificial intelligence to clear a backlog of Phoenix pay system transactions as it transitions to a new platform.<\/p>\n

Despite its efforts, the Government of Canada website says the backlog of transactions stood at 216,000 as of Feb. 25 and that 45 per cent of those cases are more than a year old.<\/p>\n

MacDougall said she\u2019s concerned that if she chooses to retire, the government will come hunting for more money later down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the next six years after my last pay, I\u2019ll always be worried that they\u2019re going to come looking for something,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like I can now never trust any information I get from them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alex Benay, associate deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada, says public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3793,3782,64,63,3794,1348,3774,3795,99,2065,3773,3787,3788,3784,3775,3772,164,2555,75,69,186,3781,3805,3776,3777,3786,3783,1625,2289,3796,3779,3800,3801,3803,3798,3802,3797,3799,184,185,3778,3790,3791,84,3789,2111,635,105,3792,3785,3780,1346,3804],"class_list":["post-557690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-finance","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}