Hidden windfall for many people (Poll Inside)

PETALING JAYA: Homemaker Jessica Lai thought it was a scam when she was told she could find unclaimed money on the government portal eGUMIS.

But she tried her luck anyway – and found that she could claim RM1,000.

“I had never heard of it, and I thought it was a scam, but I only believed it when my daughter showed me some news articles about it,” said the 53-year-old, who has yet to claim the money.

“Some of my money was from 2012; I will have to claim it quickly now,” she said after being told that the government was shortening the claim period from 15 to 10 years.

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She will lose the money if government legislation to shorten the period is passed this year.

“I don’t understand why the government wants to shorten the claimable period, and there should have been more awareness about this in public. I have to tell my husband to check quickly and claim soon,” she said.

Senior writer Syed Umar Syed Ariff found the process of claiming the money to be swift and convenient.

“I was actually surprised to know that I had about RM400 in unclaimed money. I decided to claim it, and I just needed to fill in a few particulars and submit a few documents.

“A week later, the money was in my bank account,” he added.

Civil servant Y. Ravi Varman, 28, agreed that the claiming process was easy.

“Just key in your details, and if you have unclaimed money, just upload the documents needed,” he said.

On shortening the claim period, Ravi said the government should keep the public informed if it is to be implemented.

“The government should spread the word to all Malaysians to give them a chance to claim their money,” he added.

However, engineer Mohd Azim Akmal, 35, said the process to claim the money he has in the system was not worth the hassle.

He found out that he had unclaimed money worth RM50.

“It is a very small amount. I saw the steps needed to claim it, and I just don’t think it was worth the time.

“If the government wants to take it, that should be fine, as long as it benefits Malaysians as a whole,” he said.

The eGUMIS portal, which was launched in 2020, received about 17.2 million visitors as of last March and has almost 4.4 million registered users.