India's 'Your Money – Your Right' Campaign Streamlines Unclaimed Funds Recovery

India's government has launched the 'Your Money – Your Right' campaign to assist individuals in recovering unclaimed funds from life insurance policies and Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) accounts. This initiative provides a centralized mechanism for citizens to check their dues and initiate claims online, addressing a long-standing issue of dormant financial assets. The campaign primarily targets two significant pools of unclaimed funds. First, it facilitates access to unclaimed maturity proceeds, survival benefits, and death claims from life insurance policies, particularly those issued by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). This streamlines a process that previously often involved navigating complex paperwork and disparate institutional portals. Secondly, the initiative focuses on inoperative EPF accounts. An EPF account becomes inoperative if no contributions have been made for 36 months, and the member has not applied for withdrawal. These accounts accumulate interest for three years from the date they become inoperative, after which interest ceases. The online claim process aims to bring these funds back into active circulation, benefiting workers and their families. Economically, the mobilization of these unclaimed funds could lead to a minor injection of liquidity into the economy. While specific aggregate figures for unclaimed amounts across all institutions are not routinely consolidated, estimates suggest these sums collectively run into thousands of crores of rupees. Releasing these funds back to rightful owners could stimulate consumption or savings, depending on individual financial decisions. Furthermore, the increased transparency and simplified claims process could enhance financial literacy and trust in the formal financial system, encouraging greater participation in long-term savings and insurance schemes.