BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)– The Great Employee Give Back of 2023 is a new program to help businesses return unclaimed property to their employees.

The program handed out nearly 600 unclaimed property checks including a total of $42,592.59 to employees at Baton Rouge General Hospital.

The state designates that most unclaimed property is abandoned if no activity has happened for several years.

Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder says that the money will be given to the state by law if a business has lost individuals’ information for unclaimed property.

“So we get new money in once a year and we typically get about $100 million a year. Last year was our best year ever. We returned almost 72% of it, but we get new money in every year to help people,” John Schroder said.

Schroder says that unclaimed funds held by the state are often from bank accounts or insurance policies.

“To be able to return this money to employees right now in the time of inflation where people need extra money. This is a way we were able to work with the treasurer to be able to return this money to our employers and make a difference in their lives,” Kendall Johnson Baton Rouge General Chief Financial Officer said.

Employees at Baton Rouge General like Ramon Hardy say that without the help of the hospital, he would have not known about the program.

“With knowing of this program I’m going to let my family know first of all and make sure my dad is aware, my siblings are aware. And try to spread the word and check on a regular basis,” Hardy said.

Visit LaCashClaim.org to find out if you have unclaimed property.