More than $4 million belonging to Hume and Whittlesea residents is being held by the State Revenue Office (SRO), which is encouraging people to go online to find out if they are among thousands of people with a claim in the pool.
More than $100 million is owed to Victorians by the SRO, including more than $250,000 to one woman living in Ardeer.
The office holds records of money that are unclaimed after 12 months, including refunds, rents and bonds, share dividends, salaries and wages, debentures, interest and proceeds from sales.
The most lucrative potential windfalls belong to a man last listed as living in Box Hill ($882,697) and an Ardeer woman ($259,828).
There are 13,319 entitlements in Hume amounting to $1.6 million being held by the SRO, while Whittlesea residents account for 19,325 entitlements totalling $2.5 million.
Overall, there are roughly 678,000 entitlements, with the largest being in the City of Melbourne (45,653 claims worth $13,633,759), Stonnington (36,332 worth $7,516,798) and Boroondara (35,246 worth $7,103,869).
Most of the entitlement records have been held for less than 10 years.
The office also holds winnings from TAB, Tabcorp, Tattersalls and Intralot that are unclaimed for six months or more.
A winning ticket from March 2016 for $2,136,327 is yet to be cashed in.
To search for the unclaimed cash, Victorians will need their name or company name and the address of the lodging organisation would have had on file.
“This is money that belongs to citizens and we want it in their hands,“ Treasurer Tim Pallas said.
“If the SRO is holding unclaimed money in your name you’ll know within seconds, and the process for recovery is straightforward.“
Victorian businesses and trustees holding $20 or more in unclaimed money must record and keep the money for at least 12 months before lodging it with the SRO.
-AAP
