Feeling short on cash? The University of British Columbia is sitting on $5 million in uncollected paycheques and interest, and some of it just might be yours.

The university has a stash of forgotten cheques dating back to the early 90s, according to spokesperson Susan Danard. Altogether, they amount to about four per cent of all cheques that would have been paid out in the same time period.

"They might have been seasonal employees or student employees, just here for a couple of weeks, and we stored their cheques — and actually in many cases tried several times to reach the employee and weren't successful," she said.

The cheques and all of the interest that has accrued over the years have now been turned over to the British Columbia Unclaimed Property Society, which operates an online database where former employees can search their own names for any missing cash.

Most cheques are small

Most of the cheques are relatively small, with an average amount of $500, according to Danard.

"These are probably people who did maybe a week's worth of work," she said.

She added that it's possible some people were a bit late signing up to have their pay directly deposited when they were first hired, and forgot to pick up the cheque for their first few days.

"We're very clear on our new cheque policy that we want you to be on direct deposit as soon as you become an employee, and we will mail out cheques now to your home address if you don't pick it up," Danard said.

Anyone who's still working at UBC has already received any cheques they'd forgotten to pick up, she added.

Danard said UBC worked with an external auditor and the Employment Standards Branch to make sure the uncollected cheques were handled properly.

With files from Deborah Goble