Unclaimed Money with LIC and EPFO: How to Claim It

Unclaimed money with LIC and EPFO has crossed a combined ₹16,600 crore as of March 2026 — and there's a real chance some of it belongs to you, a parent, or a relative who simply forgot about an old policy or provident fund account. The Government confirmed the exact figures in Lok Sabha on 20 July 2026, along with how you can actually check and claim it. Here's the full picture, in plain terms.

How Much Money Are We Talking About

The numbers come from an official Lok Sabha reply (Unstarred Question No. 220), answered by Shri Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance, on 20 July 2026.

Worth noting: the Government's answer specifically says EPFO doesn't classify its money as "unclaimed" — technically, these are inoperative accounts (accounts with no activity for a period, now covered under Para 55 of the EPF Scheme, 2026, formerly Para 72(6) of the 1952 scheme). In practice, this money works the same way as unclaimed LIC funds: it's sitting there, waiting for the rightful owner or their nominee to claim it.

How to Check If You Have Unclaimed LIC Money

LIC has made this genuinely simple to check yourself, no branch visit required for the search step:

1. Go to the official LIC website — www.licindia.in
2. Look for the unclaimed amounts search tool
3. Enter your Date of Birth and your Name or PAN
4. The portal will show if there's any unclaimed amount linked to you

This is worth doing even if you don't remember an old policy specifically — many people have small paid-up policies from decades ago that matured or lapsed with a payout still sitting unclaimed.

How LIC Tries to Reach You First

Before you even go looking, LIC runs its own outreach — it's useful to know what this looks like so you don't dismiss it as spam:

• Letters sent to your last known address from Branch/Divisional Offices
• SMS reminders to your registered mobile number
• Local LIC agents visiting your last known address, and sometimes checking with neighbours, nearby shops, or the Gram Panchayat to trace you
• A dedicated Credit Bureau Agency engaged specifically to trace address and mobile number changes
• Advertisements published across India in English, Hindi, and 13 regional languages
• Participation in the Ministry of Finance's "Your Money—Your Right" campaign, which ran district-level camps from October to December 2025

If you've moved house or changed your number since taking out an old policy, none of this outreach may have reached you — which is exactly why checking the portal yourself matters.

How to Check and Claim Unclaimed EPFO Money

For EPF, the process depends on the balance in the inoperative account:

If your inoperative balance is ₹1,000 or less: The Central Board of Trustees, EPFO, has approved a pilot project for auto-initiation of claim settlement — if your account is Aadhaar-verified, the amount is credited directly to your Aadhaar-seeded bank account, with no fresh claim or documentation needed. This is currently a pilot, but the Government has indicated it's likely to be extended to other balance slabs after due diligence.

If your balance is higher, or the account isn't Aadhaar-verified: You'll need to go through the standard EPFO claim process — check your account status on the EPFO member portal, ensure your KYC (Aadhaar, PAN, bank details) is updated and linked, and file a claim if the account shows as inoperative with your name on it.

EPFO has also been running Nidhi Aapke Nikat (NAN) 2.0 camps and social media outreach specifically to make employers and employees aware of inoperative accounts and how to reclaim them.

What Happens If You Never Claim It

This is where it gets time-sensitive, at least on the LIC side. Under the IRDAI Master Circular on Operations and Allied Matters of Insurers (dated 19 June 2024), any amount that stays unclaimed with LIC for more than 10 years must be transferred to the Senior Citizen Welfare Fund (SCWF), managed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. LIC transfers eligible amounts every year, on or before 1st March.

The good news: transfer to SCWF doesn't mean the money is gone forever. You can still claim funds that have moved to SCWF — but it's a more involved process than claiming directly from LIC, so it's far simpler to claim before the 10-year mark than after.

As of this reply, the Government has stated there's no current proposal to use unclaimed LIC or EPFO funds for any other purpose — the SCWF transfer for LIC funds is the only redirection mechanism currently in place.

Who Should Actually Check This

• Anyone with an old LIC policy that matured, lapsed, or was surrendered years ago without a clear payout memory
• Legal heirs of a deceased family member who may have held an LIC policy or EPF account you're unaware of
• Anyone who's changed jobs multiple times and may have left an EPF account inactive without transferring or withdrawing the balance
• Nominees on old policies who never followed up after the policyholder's death

If you're the legal heir or nominee trying to claim on someone else's behalf, be ready with proof of relationship, the policyholder's/member's identity documents, and your own KYC — LIC and EPFO both need documentation before releasing funds to anyone other than the original account holder.

What to Do Next

• Check the LIC portal with your DOB and PAN today — it takes a few minutes and costs nothing
• If you've had multiple jobs, log into the EPFO member portal and check for any old UAN or PF account you may have forgotten about
• If you're managing a deceased relative's affairs, specifically ask about LIC and EPF accounts when sorting their retirement benefits and service pension paperwork — these are easy to overlook alongside the main pension process
• Don't wait — the 10-year SCWF transfer clock on LIC funds keeps running whether you check or not

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