Tips for filing a Mental Anguish Claim
One type of Phoenix severe impact claim that you can make is a claim for mental anguish. Any member who has had serious Phoenix pay issues should file a claim for mental anguish.
- Make sure to write a strong personal impact statement describing any of the below that apply:
- A chronology of your pay issues and their impact on you *Note: you do not have to prove your pay issues or provide pay stubs –the Claims Office will ask the employer to provide that information*
- Impact of Phoenix pay issues on your life, health, relationships –did your quality of life change? How?
- Impact on well-being of kids, loved ones –did their quality of life change? How?
- Impact on you of watching loved ones suffer
- Whether Phoenix worsened a pre-existing health condition you had
- Were you already suffering difficulty in your life, like a loved one’s illness?
- How you were impacted when you saw your wrong paystubs
- Amount of time / effort you spent trying to correct your pay issues
- Whether your pay problems were long term
- Whether they had a long-term impact on you
- Whether you are still affected at the time of filing your claim
- Whether you had to see doctor, psychologist, therapist, etc., and how often, for how long
- Whether you had to take medications due to the stress of Phoenix
- Homelessness / eviction or threat of eviction / using food bank / difficulty affording groceries or other necessities
- Humiliation of having to borrow money from friends / family / coworkers
- Changes in your behaviour – i.e. more napping, short tempered, increased use of pain medication
- Having to remortgage house / having to take out line of credit / using payday loans
- Losing house / car / having to sell possessions
- Did you already have modest pay levels which made you vulnerable in case of pay issues?
- Were you the sole income-earner in the home?
- Did you have any dependents / children to support?
- Spouse having to take on more work / shifts
- Did the employer try to fix their pay mistakes quickly vs slowly?
- You can also include a statement from a family member / friend / coworker / manager about how they observed Phoenix affected you or how your pay issues affected them
- Collect any relevant medical notes and documents to attach to your claim (doctor’s/counsellor’s/EAP notes, letters you wrote to MP about your Phoenix pay issues, eviction documents, payday loan documents, etc.)