NSW residents in the Illawarra, Capital and Central West regions of NSW can claim up to $16.7 million in unclaimed funds. Photo: Andrew McLaughlin.
The NSW Government has announced new systems and procedures designed to make it easier for residents to claim unclaimed money.
The new system will be incorporated into the Service NSW app and system and will streamline ID checks for people trying to claim overpayments, refunds, dividends, uncashed cheques, NSW Public Sector superannuation and other monies previously unable to be paid.
The system will make it easier to upload any required documentation, adds a new feature which tracks the application’s status, and includes a new portal to enable enterprises to provide better quality data to Revenue NSW.
The government says that, in 2023-24 more than $22.3 million was returned to individuals, a 59 per cent increase over the previous year.
It says Revenue NSW undertakes extensive work to proactively identify individuals who may have unclaimed money, and in 2023-24 it sent 12,407 letters alerting residents to possible claims and to assist them with the claim process.
NSW is currently holding $638 million in unclaimed money, including $63.1 million which has already been added in the 2024/25 financial year to date. It says $268 million is claimable by residents of NSW, and that the average amount available to claim is $370.
Figures show that residents of inner Sydney and the inner south have the most to claim with $46.6 million, followed by North Sydney and Hornsby with $29.5 million.
In regional NSW, residents of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie have $8.2 million to claim, while residents of the Illawarra can claim $6.5 million.
Residents of the NSW Capital and the Central West regions each have more than $5.1 million in unclaimed monies.
NSW Minister for Finance Courtney Houssos said the government wanted to get the money back to families and households as quickly and easily as possible.
“The changes we’ve made to the unclaimed money system will help make that process easier,” she said.
“By making sure that businesses that send information to the unclaimed money fund include basic information, we can get started matching people with their unclaimed money even sooner.
“I thank NSW-based enterprises for transferring money into the unclaimed money fund that they’ve been unable to return to their rightful owners, so that the NSW Government can try to do so,” she added.
“We encourage you to jump on the updated website and see if any of the unclaimed money belongs to you.”
NSW Chief Commissioner of State Revenue Scott Johnston said the new enterprise portal would require businesses and corporations to provide the information Revenue NSW needed to re-unite residents in NSW, Australia and overseas with their unclaimed money.
“With Revenue NSW consistently seeing more money lodged than it’s able to return, the portal will help the agency continue to give more and more unclaimed money back to those it’s owed to,” he said.
