Tate Papworth
An Ardeer woman is owed more than a quarter of a million dollars in unclaimed entitlements, according to the latest data of the State Revenue Office.
The data, which was released last week, shows that a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars is waiting to be claimed by Victorians in long-lost wages, rental bonds
and share dividends.
The Ardeer woman’s unclaimed entitlements, which total $259,828, is one of the largest amounts owing in the state.
Entitlements owing range from as little as $20 all the way up to $994,994, which is owed to a Mulgrave woman.
Meanwhile, a man in Ivanhoe East has a whopping 70 entitlements in his name – for a total of $16,888 outstanding.
In the past financial year, the State Revenue Office reunited $16.6 million with its rightful owners through more than 18,000 entitlements, the equivalent of 50 claims processed a day.
Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas implored all Victorians to check if they had any money owing.
“This is money that is just waiting to be collected by their rightful owners,” Mr Pallas said.
“We encourage all Victorians, businesses and community groups to do a search – you may be pleasantly surprised.
“You will know within seconds if you’re sitting on an unexpected windfall.”
There are currently 825,211 entitlements for Greater Melbourne totalling $123 million.
That includes $433,888 in Footscray (2529 entitlements) and $347,916 in Hoppers Crossing (3553 entitlements).
In regional Victoria, the leading area is Geelong with $2.7 million (25,137 entitlements), followed by Ballarat with $1.28 million to be claimed (11,296 entitlements) and Bendigo with $1.1 million (11,069 entitlements).
The register contains unclaimed money lodged since 1997.
There is no time limit to claiming held money, which can be searched via sro.vic.gov.au/unclaimedmoney.
