This bulletin supersedes Payroll Bulletin 1595

Purpose

To provide agencies with information regarding the outreach and escheatment of uncashed payroll checks issued in calendar year 2017

Affected Employees

Employees with one or more uncashed payroll checks originally issued in calendar year 2017

Background

Abandoned Property Law §102 requires that uncashed checks become abandoned property after one year and that certain payee notifications are issued.

Effective Date(s)

Checks with an original issue date between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017

Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing

Control-D report NPAY539 (Non- Negotiated Payroll Checks) is available for agency use.

Agency Actions

Notify affected employees that stop payments will be issued for all uncashed payroll checks originally issued in 2017 and that the funds will be sent to the NYS Office of Unclaimed Funds (OUF) on April 22, 2019. Employees can visit the Unclaimed Funds - Search for Lost Money website to search for money handed over to OUF and submit a claim to recover these funds.

OSC Actions

An initial outreach letter was sent to all employees with a 2017 uncashed payroll check greater than $19.99 on September 26, 2018. A second outreach letter will be sent via certified mail to all employees with a 2017 uncashed payroll check greater than $999.99 as of October 2018.

Signed outreach letters that are returned to OSC prior to January 1, 2019 will be treated as a written request for reissuance of a payroll check and OSC will reissue the check.

Any checks that remain uncashed as of April 18, 2019 will be stopped and the funds will be escheated and sent to the NYS Office of Unclaimed Funds on April 22, 2019.

Questions

Agency questions may be directed to the Uncashed & Reissued NYS Payroll Checks mailbox.

For more information regarding the escheatment schedule, see the Operational Advisory 9 – Current Year Escheatment.