Oregon residents should keep an eye out for unclaimed checks of up to $10,000 that may come their way from the Oregon Treasury if they have unclaimed paychecks, security deposits, tax refunds or other unclaimed property in their possession.
Last week, Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read announced that his agency would actively return approximately $10 million of Oregon unclaimed money back to its rightful owners as part of an initiative by Oregon to reunite people with funds held by their unclaimed property account and currently unclaimed. Eric Engelson of Oregon Treasury Public Information Office estimates this represents only one fraction of the over $880 million currently waiting to be claimed by Oregonians.
Read is proud of their accomplishment in returning millions in unclaimed funds to their rightful owners, adding, “Treasury is committed to more than collecting and safeguarding Oregonians’ unclaimed property; instead, we aim to raise awareness across Oregon and provide easy ways for individuals to locate and claim what is theirs.”
Oregonians and others can quickly and easily discover unclaimed property by accessing unclaimed.oregon.gov. This property can include money left sitting idle in bank or investment accounts, checks that were never cashed and unclaimed tax refunds as well as overpayments on utility bills.
If you are an Oregonian, you may have some state of oregon unclaimed property sitting around that is theirs to claim from 2018-20. While Oregonians usually file claims with the Treasury in order to retrieve their money, starting this spring some items valued from $50 up to $10,000 reported with your Social Security number will be sent directly back as checks.
The Treasury will notify recipients at least a month in advance that checks for property reported in 2018 will be sent out, beginning with those for properties reported in February and continuing through April for property reported in 2019 and June for 2020 property reported.
Engelson reported that several states, such as Louisiana and Illinois, have also established similar programs.
— Julia Shumway from Oregon Capital Chronicle.
The Oregon Capital Chronicle was established in 2021 as a non-profit news organization to cover Oregon state government, politics and policy.
