CLEVELAND — A woman who fled Northeast Ohio following a domestic situation is anxiously waiting for her nearly $500,000 in unclaimed funds to be processed and paid out.
It's a wait to help rebuild her life, which has been on hold for six months and counting.
"They need to do something about how they can solve this and speed up the process," she told News 5. "It's just taking way too long. The problem needs to be addressed."
News 5 agreed not to disclose the woman's name or the exact amount of her claim to help protect her personal safety. The source of her unclaimed funds is drilling royalties on her property.
"I left Ohio under kind of – personal pretenses – a domestic situation," she said. "We have lots of medical bills, we lost our personal businesses. It would significantly help us climb out of the hole we're in. You're basically trying to start over from scratch and the money would definitely help at least help us keep our house. That's the one thing we haven't lost so far. We lost everything else."
The wait continues for many looking to retrieve unclaimed funds
Ohioans filed more than a million claims for their unclaimed funds in the year after Ohio lawmakers agreed to use $600 million in unclaimed funds to help pay for a new Cleveland Browns stadium in Brook Park.
That's double the number of claims the Division of Unclaimed Funds received in the year prior.
As a result, the Division of Unclaimed Funds told News 5 on June 12 that it is still processing claims submitted in the second half of last year.
"We appreciate Ohioans’ patience as we work to process these claims as efficiently as possible," a spokesperson told News 5.
To address the backlog, the Division of Unclaimed Funds increased its full-time staff from 51 to 59 over the past year and is currently hiring 12 part-time staffers to handle claims.
The Division of Unclaimed Funds is making progress — paying out nearly 200,000 claims in the past year
However, even as the Division of Unclaimed Funds deals with a record number of claims filed following the Browns' announcement, they are also on track to pay out more claims than ever before.
For perspective, the division paid out 26,420 claims in all of 2024. In the year since the Browns stadium announcement (June 1, 2025 - June 7, 2026), it has paid out 187,522 claims totaling $138,152,886.
That's a result of major changes to the website and the overhauling of their processing system in early 2025, leading to much faster payouts for about 20% of claims.
RELATED: Ohio makes it easier and faster to get unclaimed funds back
"We have made significant modifications to our website and the underlying technology behind the website," Akil Hardy, superintendent of Ohio's Division of Unclaimed Funds, told News 5 last year. "The underlying technology is what's most critical because it allows the information provided by the claimant (to be) autonomously validated so that we can more efficiently process that claim. In the past, all claims would get processed between let's say 90 to 100 days. Right now, some people are getting their funds in two weeks."
The department also raised the benchmark for when someone needs a notary to sign off on their documents from a $1,000 claim to a $3,000 claim.
We previously told you about a woman who filed a claim and received $167 in just three weeks. WATCH:
READ MORE: Ohio makes it easier and faster to get unclaimed funds back
Let's not forget how lawmakers changed the way Ohio's unclaimed funds are held
Language tucked into Ohio's two-year operating budget last year changed the way Ohio safeguards those unclaimed funds.
Previously, the state held missing money in perpetuity, while using some of it to plug budget holes and give short-term loans to affordable-housing developers — in the same way banks use your deposits to make loans, while keeping a certain amount of cash on hand.
Going forward, people will have only a decade to file claims. After that, the unclaimed funds, along with interest earned on them, will become the state's property.
Lawmakers directed the commerce department to pull money out of the unclaimed funds pool twice a year, starting on Jan. 1, 2026, and to put that money into a new fund for sports and cultural facility grants. The first deposit into that fund will be $1 billion, including the $600 million earmarked for the Browns.
The budget, approved by Republican lawmakers and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine late last month, creates a grace period for people whose money gets taken by the state. They'll still be able to file claims through Jan. 1, 2036.
The Browns have not yet received the $600 million in unclaimed funds from the state. A magistrate in Columbus blocked the state from taking ownership of roughly $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion in unclaimed funds while a lawsuit plays out.
To check for unclaimed funds, visit unclaimedfunds.ohio.gov.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
