SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – This summer, State Treasurer Michael Frerichs will return a record number of checks to Illinois residents.
$45 million in cash is owed to 600,000 people that probably don’t know it. Frerichs heads up the state’s missing money program.
The only thing residents have to do to get their money is cash a check. The checks are a part of the latest round of the Enhanced Money Match Program.
Treasurer Frerich’s office helps get the checks in the mail by using technology through I-CASH, Illinois’ unclaimed property initiative.
Most of the matched claims are $50 or less, though some people could receive multiple checks totaling much more.
“The first thing we tell people, is this – the money belongs to you, the check is real, and this is not a scam,” Treasurer Frerichs says. “The second thing we tell them, is to cash the check! Who couldn’t use a little extra pocket money this summer?”
Frerich’s office says the volume of”claim-less” checks is unprecedented. The Treasurer’s Office founded the Enhanced Money Match program in 2018 and has since returned more than $130 million to more than 870,000 people. This summer’s total of nearly 600,000 checks makes it the largest Money Match ever performed in the nation.
The State Treasurer’s Office began mailing out notification letters at the end of June. The checks will be distributed throughout the summer.
The Enhanced Money Match Program leverages data already collected by partnering agencies and crossmatches it with the State Treasurer’s unclaimed property database. The Treasurer’s Office matches names and mailing addresses, confirms them, and then sends a letter to the unclaimed property owner, describing the amount owed and the source of the money.
Illinois holds more than $5 billion in unclaimed property. More than $2.3 billion has been returned since Frerichs took office, the most in state history. The state treasurer is legally required to return missing money to its owners or heirs, no matter how long it takes.
To see if you are owed money, click HERE.
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