More than £76 million tied up in forgotten accounts is being unlocked to help with the cost of living crisis.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that the cash will support people to get out of debt and assist social enterprises with innovative energy saving solutions. The cash will be collected through the Dormant Assets Scheme, which unlocks money from forgotten bank and building society accounts when it is not possible to reunite people with their lost money.
Beneficiaries include no-interest loans for 69,000 individuals struggling with finances via a £45 million grant distributed by Fair4All Finance. Hundreds of charities and social enterprises which will receive support from a pot of £31 million, distributed by social investors Access and Big Society Capital.
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In England, dormant assets money has been used to support young people, help those in financial difficulty, and generate social investment. The government also announced that community wealth funds will become an additional beneficiary of the Dormant Assets Scheme.
A community wealth fund is a pot of money distributed to communities in deprived areas and released over a long time period, with local residents empowered to make decisions on how to use the money. Youth, social enterprises, and people in financial difficulty will continue to be supported, with previous beneficiaries including community centres and charities providing care for the socially isolated and elderly.
An estimated £738 million more will be made available over time thanks to the expansion of the Scheme to the new sectors. Since 2011, £892 million has been released via the Scheme.
What are "lost" assets?
The Mirror reported that a dormant asset is a financial product - such as a bank account - that someone has not used for many years, so it in effect becomes lost or forgotten. In order for this product to be accessed through the Dormant Assets Scheme, your provider - so the bank - must have tried to contact you about your funds.
There are other things classed as "lost asset" but currently do not come under the scope of the scheme just yet. These can include pensions, insurance and investments.
According to the MoneySavingExpert website, there could be as much as £50billion in lost assets in the UK. Things like this usually get lost if you have moved house, or changed your phone number and do not update your details with where your money is kept.
You should be aware that even if your account has been marked inactive for several years, the money in it is still yours and you are entitled to claim it at any time.
How to reclaim a lost account
If you are looking for a lost bank or building society account, or Premium Bonds, then you can find them through the My Lost Account service. This service is a joint venture by the British Bankers’ Association, the Building Societies Association and the National Savings and Investments (NS&I).
All you need to do is fill out a form on the My Lost Account service website, where you will need to fill in details about the account you're looking for. After that, you will have to wait for around three months for a bank or building society to respond, while NS&I aim to respond within a month.
If you have a private pension from a workplace, you should first look through old paperwork or contact the HR department at your old employer. If that doesn't work you can try the Pension Tracing Service tool, which has details of more than 200,000 different pension schemes and will help you find an up-to-date contact address for you.
For investments, companies are constantly evolving with mergers, takeovers or rebranding, which makes it difficult to keep track of your investments. For investments, you will need to contact companies directly as they keep records of all their shareholders and dividends.
For insurance plans, you can approach the company directly or you can contact the Association of British Insurers for up-to-date contact information for life insurance companies.
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