Government is Increasing Measures to Return Unclaimed Funds
Increasing unclaimed funds is a logistic nightmare for the government. The government is taking all the measures to return these unclaimed funds to their rightful owners. The initiatives are being taken on both the center and state levels. Most of the states have already adopted an unclaimed funds website.
These websites have reliable and relevant information regarding the search and claim process of unclaimed funds. All of these websites have online claim forms which can be submitted with the click of a button.
Federal and state governments have made it mandatory for financial institutions, public utilities and other people-facing institutions to report any unclaimed property or funds. Any property that has been abandoned for a stipulated period of time, without any whereabouts of the owner, is marked as abandoned or unclaimed.
As an example of State initiative, Department of Financial Service’s Financial Accountability for Public Funds Program is dedicated towards financial accountability of public funds – with the aim of providing timely, factual and official information regarding the financial status and claim process of the state- this program also locates, recovers, and returns unclaimed property to owners.
Government has a well structured unclaimed funds recovery programs for every type of personal and professional fund: Pension funds, Tax refunds, Savings Bonds. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has searchable database at PBGC.gov to help you locate any pension benefits if your pension plan no longer exists. If you are the rightful recipient of a pension plan, then you can track down the benefits too.
Government sponsored IRS website, www.IRS.gov, helps you track your unclaimed tax refund. As a recipient of the unclaimed refunds, the only data required are Social Security number, filing status and the exact dollar amount expected. For a savings bond refund, the best site for getting the status of refunds is TreasuryDirect.gov. In addition to the relevant claim information, a bonds maturity calculator is also available on this site.
The division of Accounting and Auditing is the major division of the government which is responsible for monitoring delivery of unclaimed funds in the country. The 7 operating units under this division are Bureau of Accounting, Bureau of Auditing, Bureau of Local Government, Bureau of State Payrolls, Bureau of Unclaimed Property, Office of Fiscal Integrity, and Enterprise Education (FLAIR).
