LETTER

My anger over the Phoenix pay scam

 

Yesterday, we had $13 in our bank account. Today, we have negative $7,000, after suffering massive bank fraud overnight.

Who did it?  A team of Chinese hackers?  No.  The wife of Nigeria’s ex-President?  No. Bernie Madoff and his pyramid scam boys?  No. Answer: Our Prime Minister.

Why?  Because that’s what the federal government’s PHOENIX PAYROLL SYSTEM took from our bank account -- $7,000 charged to us for the privilege of my lady, Penelope, working overtime for the Federal Government.

This is no isolated incident.  There are people losing their homes in Aylmer, dying of cancer as they lack the money for treatment, and another committing suicide thanks to the swindle undertaken by our government.  In fact, so many people are affected in Aylmer, that MP Greg Fergus won’t even take calls on it any more;  he’s passed the problem to his secretary who, ironically, also has collegues and friends being hammered by the Phoenix scam.  

It’s been three years of swindling people out of their pay cheques,  cleaning out of victims’ bank accounts and $450 million of taxpayer money squandered on “software patches” by the IT people, which has merely exacerbated the fraud.

The original claim was that it would save the taxpayer money by firing 7,000 hard-working, dedicated pay professionals working in each department  and replacing them with 500 drop-outs to punch in figures, has now been shown to be a gross lie.  Recently, each  department has been told that they must hire new staff just to calculate how much back-pay is outstanding to its employees.  It looks like the  Government wants to know how much it has saved by ripping off its employees and raiding their bank accounts.  (Indeed, the bosses are hardly going  to care as they can call to have any mishap with their own pay fixed on the spot).

This is a classic textbook operation, complete with a call centre whose sole function is to calm people’s nerves as Phoenix cleans out their bank accounts.

Robert Koss  (Real name withheld)
Aylmer

(EDITOR’s note: This letter is similar to many complaints circulating throughout Aylmer and affecting the entire business community, as well as the families of those working in the public service. The Bulletin invites readers to send in their stories and adventures in dealing with Phoenix; enough of a groundswell will prompt a solution. To submit see page 4 for addresses.)