ILLINOIS, USA — More than 66,000 people could be eligible for up to $5,000 from the Illinois state Unclaimed Property program, all they have to do is open their mail.
State treasurer Michael Frerichs worked with the general assembly to create some changes within the Money Match program to make it easier to automatically return money to people without the need to file a claim. Lawmakers agreed to raise the automatic payment cap to $5,000. The cap used to be $2,000.
"It's like I get to play Santa Claus 365 days a year," said Frerichs. "Some people say, 'How can the state afford to do this?' This is not the state's money. This is the people's money."
It's cash that could be from a last check at an old job, a life insurance policy, overlooked safety deposit boxes, even unused rebate cards. Legally the treasurer has to return that property to the owners or heirs, no matter how long it takes.
So how does it work? The Enhanced Money Match program uses technology from data already collected by the state and crossmatches it with the treasurer's unclaimed property database. When a matching name and mailing address is confirmed, the property owner will get a letter from the treasurer's office that describes the amount of money they're owed and why it's owed to them.
After an additional security step, the office will send out a check. All they have to do is watch out for the mail.
"All they have to do is endorse it and cash the check," Frerichs said. "We've tried to make it very easy to remove excuses that people have had to put more money into our economy."
Frerichs says some people wouldn't claim their checks because it may have been too much of a hassle to claim a small amount of money. Lifting this barrier means helping people when the economy is strained.
"Right now with the increases in inflation, gas prices, families with back-to-school expenses, it's even more important to get money back into their hands," said Frerichs.
The office estimates this impacts roughly 66,700 people for a total of $47 million.