RRSP Contribution Issue

[rx7_turbo2]

My wife takes advantage of her employers RRSP contribution matching program, as I'm sure many of you do.

It's not a ton of cash. She's arranged that her employer deducts $200 every month from her pay, they match it and deposit the combined $400/month into an RRSP account setup with Manulife.

So far sounds normal what's the issue right? Her pay stubs show the money is being deducted as it should be, however her Manulife account shows that money and the matched contributions haven't been deposited since August.

Manulife can't do a whole lot about it, if the money is never deposited it's not really their resposibility. This issue is not limited to my wife, it would seem just about everyone who takes advantage of this program at her company has been victim to this. It's not a small company 400+ employees throughout the Province.

The issue has been brought up by numerous employees numerous times, with payroll, and HR but nothing seems to be being done about it. Employees have been told "don't worry it will be rectified for the next pay period" and it never is.

Now that tax season is approaching I'm not sure how to deal with this? In addition at what point should the issue be escalated? And if escalation is required how should it be done? Private lawyer? RCMP commercial crimes? Canada a Revenue Agency?

Any advice?

[Sugarphreak]

...

[BrknFngrs]

I dealt with a similar issue; odds are the individual she is dealing with in HR doesn't have the contacts or "pull" to sort it out. Something as simple as a CC to someone higher up in HR (manager, VP, etc) should solve this pretty quick. The annoying part is that your wife likely lost out on returns that would have been earned in that time.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
They should be able to provide a statement for this tax year on how much is being deducted. If they do that, then it won't hold up her taxes... and you have a record which cannot be disputed and can be used for legal purposes if they do not fix the problem.

If they are not able to provide that, or it is up to Manulife to send her an RSP statement... she needs to walk into HR and start demanding they put it into the Manulife account for tax purposes or she will give both alberta labour relations board and CRA a call and they can deal with them instead.


Always carefully threaten verbally first… that way you don’t lose good faith with the company by bringing in authorities and casting a shadow on your career.

Ya I'll get her to start things off slowly, start a paper trail, we'll see where it goes. Given how long this has already gone on for I'm guessing it will need to be escalated, but we'll see, there's a number of employees affected, Alberta Labour Relations will act fairly quickly I'm guessing if and when that time comes.

BrknFngrs that was my next question. Is her company not on the hook for any interest that would have been earned?

[blownz]

I would be making friends with someone higher up in accounting lol.

I would also look for turnover in senior accounting postitions or other managers that may know of bigger issues.

And you can mention it to HR but they are only paper pushing admin people in the end. Someone in accouting is obviously not remitting payment for some reason.

I would suggest to make sure it isn't just the company portion that potentially hasn't vested yet that isn't showing up on your statement but it doesn't sound like that is the case.

If it is a private company, try to find out who their account manager at the bank is and talk to them. Chances are they owe the bank money and if the bank found out they were taking deductions from employees for RRSP's and not remitting they would likely be concerned. Stir the pot. :D

Good luck.

[SkiBum5.0]

Is it in your wife's employment contract that she is entitled to employer matching RRSP contributions? Any language surrounding "employer matching can be terminated without notice"?

[roopi]

If they aren't contributing for any of the employees I'd start looking for a new job. :rofl: Maybe they don't have the funds to make the actual contributions.

[triplep]

Originally posted by SkiBum5.0
Is it in your wife's employment contract that she is entitled to employer matching RRSP contributions? Any language surrounding "employer matching can be terminated without notice"?


Yeah, but the major problem that I see is that the employer keeps deducting the $200 from her pay cheque every month, and there is no record that it is being deposited into the RRSP account.

It would be fine if they cancelled and kept depositing money into her account that she has deducted from her pay cheque, but it appears that this money is MIA.

[CapnCrunch]

Originally posted by rx7_turbo2
My wife takes advantage of her employers RRSP contribution matching program, as I'm sure many of you do.

It's not a ton of cash. She's arranged that her employer deducts $200 every month from her pay, they match it and deposit the combined $400/month into an RRSP account setup with Manulife.

So far sounds normal what's the issue right? Her pay stubs show the money is being deducted as it should be, however her Manulife account shows that money and the matched contributions haven't been deposited since August.

Manulife can't do a whole lot about it, if the money is never deposited it's not really their resposibility. This issue is not limited to my wife, it would seem just about everyone who takes advantage of this program at her company has been victim to this. It's not a small company 400+ employees throughout the Province.

The issue has been brought up by numerous employees numerous times, with payroll, and HR but nothing seems to be being done about it. Employees have been told "don't worry it will be rectified for the next pay period" and it never is.

Now that tax season is approaching I'm not sure how to deal with this? In addition at what point should the issue be escalated? And if escalation is required how should it be done? Private lawyer? RCMP commercial crimes? Canada a Revenue Agency?

Any advice?

Plain and simple...if they're taking your money and not buying the RRSP, that's fraud.