If you suspect you have money lying around in a bank, or building society account, claim it now before the Government does.

Later this year, money held by banks in dormant accounts is set to go to good causes.

A Government taskforce has recommended that any money left in an account which has had no customer activity in the last 15 years, should be transferred into a special fund. This will be administered by a special social bank which will recycle the unloved millions to worthy causes, such as helping the long term unemployed. The exact date of when this will happen is still not clear, but many think it will be in the autumn.

Dormant accounts can of course be a result of many circumstances, some just as simple as a change of postal address. Others might be a change of name, or a death of the account holder.

But certain consumer groups are worried that the banks, hit by the latest financial crisis, might not be that keen to either find the rightful owner, or donate it to charitable causes.

The banks claim otherwise, stating that they are successfully reuniting customers and their long lost money. Take the Lloyds Banking Group, which has since 2006 found homes for 23 million of its lost notes. Mind you, with an estimated near £100 million still lost and forlorn, there is still quite a bit of work to be done.

HSBC has been actively promoting its dormant accounts and recently announced that it had repatriated nearly £6m to over 3,500 customers.

And for those panicking that they know they had an old account somewhere, but just couldn’t place it, all is not lost when the social bank starts syphoning off the lost money. By law, it will still remain the property of the person that can prove it was originally their money, but the big difference will be that once it has been labelled dormant and moved to the social bank, it will be a lot harder to get, taking months to sort out the paperwork. You will be able to reclaim it, but just with a lot of effort.

For those that want to check if they have misplaced an account, the best place to start is www.mylostaccount.org.uk. This is a joint effort from the British Bankers’ Association, the Building Societies Association and National Savings & Investments. It saves time and effort, allowing you to check across a wide range of financial organisations. But, although the single website initially simplifies the start of the search process, the range of questions and details required can be quite onerous. So a casual fishing trip is a bad idea; it is a good idea to have a real think about names and other details pertinent to your claim.

You can of course go direct to the bank where you think the account might be hiding, but you will need to supply quite a number of personal details in order for them to answer your queries.

And it’s not only bank accounts that you should check. Many lottery winners don’t come forward, not realising they have perhaps won a major prize. And after 180 days, the money goes to good causes and can’t be claimed after that date. The lottery helps by arranging for publicity for any unclaimed prize over £50,000 in the area where it was bought, but still many millions remain unspoken for. So, check any lottery tickets lying around, before they run out of course.

Betting slips have no such expiry and have to be honoured no matter how late they turn up.

But there’s a whole host of other prizes and benefits which are not claimed, from pension and life insurance polices which are forgotten; to share certificates (from holdings in companies, or bonds); unclaimed state benefits (they reckon that £9 billion of government handouts such as pension credits are unclaimed every year); and, premium bonds.

So, when you’re having a good spring clean, rummaging around old boxes of papers and personal effects, keep an eye out for anything that might lead to an unclaimed prize, or asset. It might be very worth while taking the trouble.

Guest Article by Neil Camp