Tens of thousands of dollars remain unclaimed from the scrapped District Health Boards, as well as a host of other organisations, according to Inland Revenue records.
When a bank, insurance company or other institution holds money and has been unable to contact or locate the owner for five years — it is then treated as unclaimed money.
As of June 30, 2025, the Inland Revenue (IR) held about $616 million of such funds, according to Consumer NZ.
A search of the publicly-available information revealed some of the highest amounts listed were $88,432 for Middlemore Hospital Gastro Research Fund, $50,829 for South Auckland Health and $28,000 for Auckland District Health Board.
The DHBs were scrapped in 2022 and replaced with a central system under Health New Zealand.
Asked if it was aware of the unclaimed funds, and what would be done with the money should it be claimed, Health NZ said would work with the IR to recover any money owed.
Chief finance officer Bevan McKenzie added the money would be "invested into the delivery of health services for all New Zealanders".
McKenzie did not specify exactly which services, treatments or departments the money would be put towards.
While DHBs topped the dollar amount, various sports and surf life saving clubs, fire brigades, political parties and churches were all among those listed to have thousands of dollars in unclaimed funds.
Even the Inland Revenue Department was not immune — with $1329.35 being held for it.
IR responds
An IR spokesperson said the Unclaimed Monies Act 1971 puts the onus on the bank or other financial institution that holds the money to make reasonable efforts to find the owner before they send it to Inland Revenue.
"Once the money reaches us, it is listed on the searchable database, available through the IR Website and through MyIR."
They said funds can sit as unclaimed money for up to 25 years.
"If nobody claims it after that time the money reverts to the Crown and is no longer claimable."
As for the money owed to itself, the spokesperson thanked 1News for pointing this out.
"That was an administrative error and has now been removed from the searchable database."
How to check for unclaimed money
If you believe you may be entitled to some unclaimed funds, there are two ways to do this.
You can search for yourself in myIR by simply logging in and clicking on 'I want to...' and go to 'Registration, application and enrolment'. Then select 'Apply for unclaimed money'.
Or you can search the IR website. This is the option to choose if you're searching on behalf of someone else, you want to search by a previous name you've gone by, you don't have myIR account or you are searching on behalf of an organisation, trust or estate.
You'll need to provide information to help confirm you're the person the money belongs to. This might be past contact information, an old statement or letter from an organisation or person, or a copy of a will.
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