Pennsylvania Treasury briefs Blair County on PA ABLE, Keystone Scholars and $18.8 million in local unclaimed property

On July 10, 2025, a representative of Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity updated Blair County Commissioners on Treasury-run savings and consumer programs and on the scale of unclaimed property tied to local residents and entities.

Steve Schope, speaking on behalf of Treasurer Stacy Garrity and the Pennsylvania Treasury, told the commissioners the Treasury is “custodians of more than a $160,000,000,000 in Commonwealth funds” and manages consumer-facing programs including PA ABLE, PA 529 and the Keystone Scholars account program. He said those programs are intended to make savings more accessible to people with disabilities and to encourage early saving for postsecondary education.

The briefing explained PA ABLE is a tax-advantaged savings account for people with disabilities that does not count toward federal asset limits used to determine eligibility for certain benefits. Schope said that in some benefit programs a person “can’t have more than $2,000 in a bank account,” but that PA ABLE accounts can hold substantially more without affecting benefit eligibility.

Schope also described the Keystone Scholars program, under which the Treasury creates and initially funds a $100 account for every child born in Pennsylvania on or after Jan. 1, 2019. He said about 11% of those accounts have been activated statewide and “just over 8%” have been activated in Blair County, and urged local leaders to promote activation.

Schope highlighted the Treasury’s unclaimed property work. He said the Commonwealth holds more than $5 billion in unclaimed property and that “there are 173,958 properties just in Blair County alone. Those properties are worth $18,786,041.” He warned that residents often assume they do not have unclaimed funds and that scammers sometimes try to exploit people searching for unclaimed property. He recommended residents contact local treasurer offices, saying, “You can call Judy Ward’s office, and they have the same software, and they’re able to look this up and validate it for you.”

Commissioners asked procedural questions and about employee benefits: Schope said counties can add PA 529 accounts as a voluntary payroll-deduction benefit for employees, and that several county governments have done so. He also said an ABLE account can be created for any beneficiary by someone with that person’s Social Security number and that gifts can be made to ABLE accounts through an embedded “uGift” feature.

Schope closed by offering Treasury staff support for local events and outreach and said Treasurer Garrity is visiting all 67 counties this year. The commissioners did not take formal action on the briefing.

The update provides county officials and residents with contact points and program details for claiming unclaimed property or enrolling in state-managed savings programs.