What the authorities told us, on the record

As at 30 June 2025 the ATO held just over 1 million unclaimed accounts worth almost A$1.1 billion for former temporary residents alone. Australian citizens and former permanent residents living overseas are not in that number, so the true figure is higher.

Australia is the only system in our transparency scoreboard of 47 national systems that publishes an abroad-specific figure. One administrator counts its diaspora. It can be done.

1. A person residing abroad without an NSSI personal identification code or a qualified electronic signature may personally submit a written request for a certificate of their insurance periods, and it may be sent by post to an address abroad. Requests without proper identification of the applicant cannot be accepted, and the certificate cannot be sent by ordinary email.
2. The request may also be made through an authorised representative on the basis of a notarised power of attorney. Where notarised by a foreign notary it should carry an Apostille, and a Bulgarian translation is advisable.
3. The NSSI does not issue certificates of Bulgarian insurance periods as general proof of insurance history for foreign institutions. The Insurance Archive certificates concern insurance periods with terminated insurers that have no legal successor and that have transferred their payroll records to the NSSI. Where periods must be certified before an institution in another state, the information is exchanged officially between the competent institutions.

This corrected a premise we had not thought to question, and we publish the correction rather than quietly adjusting our copy.

A pension prognosis is sent automatically to entitled persons. If it was never received it can be requested electronically. After providing name, surname, birth number and email, the record is delivered by email. No national electronic identity and no notarisation are required. On the same identity request they also disclose which second pillar company holds the account. The insurance period extract from the electronic insured person account is sent by post to a stated address.

The most open correspondence route we have found. It shows that a national system can serve a member abroad by email without any electronic identity at all.

Four submission routes, including email accompanied by a qualified electronic signature, and registered post with a copy of an identity document certified under the law of the country it is sent from. Verbatim: "Sodra gali suteikti asmeniui informacija kokioje pensiju kaupimo bendroveje kaupia" Sodra can tell a person which pension accumulation company holds their savings.

The second pillar manager is disclosable on the member's own request. A person who was auto enrolled and has forgotten can be told where their money is.

The insurance data extract can be requested in writing, by email or post, and English is accepted. It is sent out by post only, for data protection reasons. PVA holds no record of which occupational provision fund holds a member's Abfertigung Neu; that runs through former employers and the funds themselves.

Email in, post out. A member abroad needs a reliable postal address, and second pillar discovery is employer history work, not a register lookup.

For insurance periods and pension applications the person applies to the competent pension agency in their country of residence, which forwards the request to e-EFKA through EESSI. Full identification with a photocopy, and the AMKA or fund insurance number, are required.

There is no direct member channel. The route runs institution to institution, which leaves an open question for people living in countries without the machinery to make that request.

Verbatim: "Sluzbena statistika HZMO-a ne raspolaze podatcima o nedostupnim osiguranicima" the official statistics of HZMO hold no data on unreachable insured members.

The first authority to confirm the gap itself, in writing. Not a refusal to publish. A statement that the data does not exist.

PUBLICA publishes no figures for unreachable members and explained why. Unclaimed exit benefits drain by design, after the statutory period, to the Stiftung Auffangeinrichtung BVG, so a fund level figure would be structurally hollow. On publishing such a figure annually, verbatim: "wenig aussagekraeftig... Wir sehen darin keinen Nutzen." of little informative value, and we see no benefit in it.

The first reasoned decline of the campaign. It also told us where the Swiss number actually lives, which is at the centre rather than at the funds.

No FMA report or publication contains data on unreachable members' pension assets, and verbatim: "Eine Erhebung oder Veroeffentlichung ist auch in naher Zukunft nicht geplant." a survey or publication is not planned in the near future either.

The only authority so far to close the door explicitly on future publication. This is the occupational pillar.

Verbatim: "Es handelt sich nicht um in Franken bezifferbare Kapitalanspruche fur eine bezifferbare Anzahl Personen, sondern um Anwartschaften aller je Versicherten auf spatere Renten (deren Hohe ungewiss ist) aus einem Umlageverfahren" these are not capital claims quantifiable in francs for a quantifiable number of people, but entitlements of all ever insured persons to future pensions of uncertain amount, from a pay as you go system.

This is the state pillar, and the reason is structural rather than a policy choice. A funded scheme can hold an unclaimed balance. A pay as you go scheme has nothing of that kind to count. Liechtenstein has both its authorities on record for two different reasons, and printing them side by side without this distinction would make the record wrong on its own terms.

On figures: "aucun chiffre officiel correspondant precisement a l'indicateur decrit dans votre Pension Scoreboard n'est actuellement publie par l'IGSS" no official figure corresponding precisely to the indicator described in your Pension Scoreboard is currently published by the IGSS.

On future publication: "nous ne sommes pas en mesure de confirmer a ce stade qu'une publication specifique est prevue." we are not able to confirm at this stage that a specific publication is planned.

On access: "Le troisieme mode d'authentification permet notamment aux ressortissants de l'Union europeenne d'acceder a MyGuichet.lu au moyen de leur moyen d'identification electronique national" the third authentication method allows European Union nationals in particular to access MyGuichet.lu using their own national electronic identification means. So it is not reserved to holders of a Luxembourg LuxTrust product. In the same reply they added, honestly, that they cannot say to what extent non Luxembourg nationals already hold a compatible eIDAS credential in practice, and referred that question onward.

The first confirmed crack in the electronic identity wall. Both qualifiers stand together every time: EU and EEA eIDAS notified nationals only, and practical uptake unconfirmed. Non EU and non EEA diaspora remain locked out entirely.

As at 31 March 2025 there were 17,876 unclaimed cases with a value of approximately R531 million. That is the as at date, not a current figure; audited 2026 figures are due with the GEPF Annual Report in November 2026. Their definition, verbatim: a claim is an unclaimed benefit "if the mode of exit and last day of service are known but the benefit is not paid within the 24 months of the last day of service." On the diaspora question: the unclaimed benefit booklet is published within the borders of South Africa only, the same list is on the GEPF website, and there is no separate breakdown for members believed to live abroad.

The first precise definition of the trigger point obtained from any of the 47 systems. And it shows that publishing a number is not the same as making it reachable from abroad.

Verbatim: "Unsere Formulare auf unsere Homepage sind auch für den Todesfall ausgelegt. Der Anfrage müssen die Kopien folgender Unterlagen beigelegt werden: Todesschein und Amtlicher Beleg zur Verwandtschaft (Familienausweis, Erbbescheinigung, Geburtsurkunde usw.) Die Kopien sind nicht zu beglaubigen." their forms already cover a deceased member, and the request must enclose copies of a death certificate and official proof of relationship, such as a family record, certificate of inheritance or birth certificate. The copies do not need to be certified.

Verbatim: "Anwesenheit. Ja." an application can be completed without appearing in Switzerland.

Contact is info@sfbvg.ch, or by post to Sicherheitsfonds BVG, Eigerplatz 2, Postfach 1023, 3000 Bern 14. The search form is at sfbvg.ch/aufgaben/suche-vorgehen.

All six questions answered. A written route that works from outside the country, and an estate route that does not require certified copies, is unusual among the systems we have written to.

Within the EEA, EFTA and the United Kingdom the application is made to the institution of the country of residence, which verifies identity under its own rules and forwards it. Verbatim: "Personen mit Wohnsitz ausserhalb der genannten Staaten sollen direkt mit uns Kontakt aufnehmen (E-Mail genügt), um die Rentenanmeldung einleiten zu können." people resident outside those states should contact us directly, and email is enough, so that the pension application can be started.

Verbatim: "Das ist Standard. Es braucht kein persönliches Erscheinen in Liechtenstein." that is standard. No personal appearance in Liechtenstein is required.

On an estate, verbatim: "Es handelt sich um ein Umlageverfahren, d.h. es gibt kein Sparkapital, auf das die Erben Anspruch haben." it is a pay as you go system, so there is no capital sum to which heirs have a claim. Read together with the next point: widows, widowers and orphans of someone with a Liechtenstein insurance career may still be entitled to a survivor pension.

There is no public register of insured persons. The route is an Auszug aus dem Individuellen Konto, and requesting it needs a copy of an identity document, at ahv.li/online-schalter/ik-auszug-anfordern.

All six questions answered. A named written route, no appearance required, and a clear statement that an estate should look for a survivor pension rather than a balance.

Verbatim: "Sporocamo vam, da taksne javno dostopne evidence ne vodimo. Tovrstne primere obravnavamo posamezno in zaradi varstva osebnih podatkov v konkretnih primerih niso objavljeni" we do not maintain such publicly accessible records; such cases are handled individually and, for personal data protection reasons, are not published in specific instances.

A stated privacy law reason, distinct from a data gap and from an architecture argument.

The Pensions Authority confirmed that it does not publish data on unclaimed pension entitlements. It supervises occupational schemes and holds the scheme register, and it publishes scheme and membership statistics, but no aggregate for benefits whose member cannot be traced. Our record was already correct and is unchanged.

Scheme level data is collected and the register is public, so the gap here is aggregation rather than access. A person can find the scheme. Nobody can find the scale.

Verbatim: "Latvija neapkopo un nepublice sadus datus. Nav ari planots to nakotne darit." Latvia does not collect or publish such data, and there are no plans to do so in the future.

A clear statement that the figure is not collected at all, which is a different answer from holding it and declining to publish it. Our row was unchanged.

1. A participant who has left Indonesia permanently, or a foreign national, can claim only in person at the nearest branch office, once back in Indonesia. The exception is a balance under Rp15,000,000, which can be claimed through the JMO app.
2. Documents required: the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan card, a valid passport, and a statement letter confirming the person no longer works in Indonesia.
3. Where a participant has died abroad, the heirs must attend a branch office in person with the BPJS card, the heir's e-KTP, the death certificate, an heir certificate signed by kelurahan and kecamatan officials, and an NPWP where the balance exceeds Rp50,000,000. Originals and photocopies of each.
4. Balances cannot be published. Verbatim: "saldo JHT bagi masing-masing bersifat rahasia dan tidak dapat dipublikasikan" each participant's JHT balance is confidential and cannot be published.

This is the first authority to give us a stated legal reason for not publishing, rather than simply not answering.

The SEC does not publish provident fund members' outstanding balances on an individual basis. At present it does not disclose unclaimed balance data annually or on a periodic cycle, and it will consider the matter going forward.

This is the first forward-looking answer in this record. Every other body has answered in the past or present tense. A regulator that says it will consider periodic publication has been asked, in writing, and has not said no.