Treasury’s Warning on Unused Checks

The Treasury Department began pressing Americans on Monday to cash more than $2.5 billion in unused federal checks, warning that it will be more difficult to get money for old checks in the future.

A new rule will go into effect next month that will give recipients of government benefits checks one year from the date of issue to cash them before they become invalid, the Treasury said.

Currently, U.S. government checks have no time limit. But anyone wanting to cash a “stale-dated” check in the future will have to go to the agency that issued the nearly 6 million uncashed government checks, worth well over $2.5 billion, that may be gathering dust in attics or resting in old shoe boxes, according to the Treasury. Some are decades old.

“Payees never, ever lose entitlement to payment,” according to Deborah Long, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service.

“The reason for the change is efficiency,” she said. “Right now, we have so many checks outstanding that we can never completely reconcile our books. It’s not done to save money by not honoring checks.”

The new law, which takes effect Oct. 1, says government checks issued from that date must be cashed within one year or they will become invalid.