A $133M uncashed cheques cache

OAS, CPP, EI payments unclaimed

FEDERAL BENEFITS

OTTAWA • A bit short on cash? One federal department is sitting on a windfall of nearly $133 million in uncashed cheques by Canadian taxpayers who received at least one of 10 benefits in the last 20 years.

Did you once claim Employment Insurance (EI) and forgot to cash one of your cheques? Maybe you received money via the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and suddenly stopped receiving cheques after a move?

If so, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the Receiver General of Canada may have money for you.

According to data obtained by the National Post, ESDC has over 323,477 unclaimed or uncashed cheques issued from at least 10 different social programs and benefits as of September 30, 2019. Total value: $133 million.

Over half of that amount is from the Canada Pension Plan, where nearly $71 million is lying dormant via 196,696 uncashed cheques.

The second largest cache of unclaimed money is from the Old Age Security (OAS) pension, a monthly payment available to eligible seniors. Over 70,313 OAS cheques are still waiting to be cashed, worth just over $46 million.

Another $8 million worth of cheques are sitting in ESDC’S General Accounts Payable.

Other amounts are from federal programs that disappeared long ago, such as the 1,258 uncashed cheques related to the Government Annuities program. The sale of those annuities ended with an Act of Parliament in 1975, though the government continues to pay out some of them today.

See ESDC on NP3