If Sydney's silly season has blown your budget, we hear you, and we’re happy to share the kind of New Year surprise we can all get behind. According to the NSW Government, almost $300 million is currently sitting in the state’s unclaimed money pool – and a decent chunk of it could belong to you.
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As 2026 gets underway, the NSW Government is urging Sydneysiders to check whether they’re owed a forgotten windfall, from uncashed cheques and overpaid bills to long-lost dividends and refunds. In other words: money that’s legally yours, but that a business hasn’t been able to track you down to return.
And if you live in Sydney, the odds are looking very interesting. The City and Eastern Suburbs are leading the charge, with more than $91 million waiting to be claimed. Western Sydney follows closely behind with almost $77 million, while Sydney’s North is sitting on nearly $53 million. Across the state, more than 800,000 individual items – ranging from a few stray dollars to eye-watering sums in the millions – are currently registered with Revenue NSW.
So how does money end up in limbo like this? It’s usually far less glamorous than buried treasure. Unclaimed funds often appear when people forget to update their contact details, change their name, misplace paperwork, or when estates are unaware of money owed to deceased relatives. Over time, those small oversights quietly snowball into a statewide pool now worth $298.4 million.
Outside the Sydney bubble, the biggest regional stash is on the Central Coast, Hunter and Lake Macquarie, where more than $22 million is up for grabs. The Illawarra and Southern Highlands aren’t far behind, with more than $10 million waiting to be claimed by its owners, while regions like the Central West, New England and the Mid North Coast are each sitting on millions in unclaimed funds.
The good news? It’s never been easier to get your hands on what you’re owed. Last year, the Minns Labor Government rolled out system upgrades to make the process faster and less painful – including tighter integration with Service NSW to help verify identities. The timeframe for businesses holding unclaimed money has also been slashed from six years to two, meaning funds are now passed to Revenue NSW (and back to their owners) much sooner. And it’s already paying off – in the last financial year alone, more than $21 million was returned to rightful owners across NSW.
Minister for Domestic Manufacturing and Government Procurement Courtney Houssos says the goal is simple: get money back into the hands of families who deserve it. “Almost $300 million is sitting unclaimed, and we want to make sure as much of that as possible finds its way back to families.”
To find out if you’re in the money (literally), head to the Revenue NSW unclaimed money register, punch in your details, and see what comes up. If there’s a match, you’ll need to fill in a claim form and provide ID showing your connection to the money. Most claims are verified and processed within about a month – which might just make this the easiest financial win of the year.
You can learn more and cross your fingers for a windfall over here.
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