LIC’s unclaimed money can fund 2 Gaganyaans

BENGALURU: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), whose IPO ended with record subscription, has unclaimed funds of Rs 21,336 crore, which is enough to fund two human spaceflight missions (Gaganyaan) going by the budget of Rs 10,000 crore for the first mission.
According to its disclosure in the Draft Red Herring Prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) before its IPO, LIC had more than Rs 21,500 crore under unclaimed deposits as of September 2021. Updated data shows that LIC has Rs 21,336 crore unclaimed money as of December 2021, which is nearly twice the size of Bengaluru city’s civic budget outlay for 2022-23.
This amount, according to the finance ministry, has remained unclaimed for a period not exceeding ten years, which means all these are policies that started during or after 2012 and can be claimed by policyholders or legal heirs.
Policy holders, heirs can verify details with LIC
Rules by the Centre and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India mandate that unclaimed funds of more than 10 years be transferred to the Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund (SCWF) every year. The ministry has said that Rs 1,255 crore that remained unclaimed for more than10 years has been transferred to SCWF till September 30, 2019.
Even after such transfers to SCWF, a policyholder or claimant will still be eligible to make a claim for up to 25 years.
About steps to ensure that unclaimed amounts reach the beneficiaries, LIC has instructed its branches to talk to policyholders and settle or adjust the amounts lying in unclaimed and outstanding accounts. It has made information on unclaimed amounts available on its website, which policyholders or legal heirs can check using their policy numbers.
“With regard to unclaimed amount paid to policyholders or legal heirs after its transfer to SCWF, LIC has said that in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2018, September 30, 2019, September 30, 2020 and September 30, 2021, unclaimed amounts of Rs 4.6 lakh, Rs 1.6 crore, Rs 1.5 crore and Rs. 8.1 crore, respectively, were repaid,” the ministry has said.