Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

$18 Billion Of Unclaimed Cash, In 1 Graph

The federal government is sitting on $18 billion in unclaimed money — money that's owed to ordinary people and businesses who never swung by to pick it up. This is a tiny fraction of the federal budget. But it's still, you know, a lot of money.

A few notes on some of the key agencies:

Treasury

Lots of people loaned money to the government and never asked for it back: The Treasury holds some $16 billion in unclaimed savings bonds. (If you think you might have a claim on some of this, check out treasuryhunt.gov.) Also waiting at the Treasury: $900 million in unclaimed tax refunds. A reason this number isn't higher? Unclaimed tax refunds expire in the three years.

Federal Courts

Some federal court somewhere may have, oh, say, $2 for you. A big chunk of the unclaimed money sitting in the courts is from class-action lawsuits — which often involve small payments to a huge number of plaintiffs, many of whom don't even know they're plaintiffs. Some of the unclaimed class-action money at has been sitting there since the 1920s (and not accruing interest), according to courts spokesman Charles Hall. And in the case you do want to make a claim on these dollars, you'll have to contact the court where the case is decided.

Homeland Security

When people leave stuff behind at ports of entry — international airports, border crossings, etc. — Homeland Security auctions the stuff off and puts the proceeds in the unclaimed money account.

And that's just the federal government...

As of of 2011, states were holding a total of $41.7 billion in unclaimed assets, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Find links for each state at NAUPA's website, unclaimed.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.