Thirty-one years after Rahayu Mazlan received payouts from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) following the death of her mother, the outstanding balance - under $2 - finally found its way to her.

The 51-year-old housewife had received a letter dated Oct 4 from the CPF Board stating that as part of its "regular reviews", it had found some leftover savings in her late mother's account since the last withdrawal in 1987.

CPF has asked her to submit a completed form and necessary documents by Nov 5 to claim it.

In response to The Sunday Times' queries, a CPF Board spokesman yesterday said that all of the deceased's CPF monies were disbursed within two months in 1987 - except for a "small residual amount" which had been retained for a specific housing-related transaction. "This amount continued to attract interest until it was deducted several months later for the transaction. The interest accrued - which amounted to less than $2 - remained unclaimed," the spokesman added.

Madam Rahayu, who has five children and seven grandchildren, said her mother, Madam Fatimah Mohamad, had worked as a production operator at a semiconductor firm and died of breast cancer at the age of 42.

As the only child, she was the sole nominee for her mother's CPF savings as her parents had divorced in 1972 and her mother did not remarry.

After receiving the letter on Wednesday, she proceeded to the CPF branch in Tampines the next day to seek an explanation.

"I was just curious about what's going on. The officer at Tampines was very nice but could not answer my queries, and I didn't want to hold up people queuing up behind me," Madam Rahayu told The Sunday Times, adding that she then shared the issue on social media, hoping to get to the bottom of the matter.

The CPF spokesman said the board makes every effort to disburse all unclaimed monies to beneficiaries and noted: "As part of our regular review of cases with unclaimed residual monies recently, our staff invited (Madam Rahayu) to make the claim."

In line with CPF legislation, all outstanding CPF balances in dead members' accounts will earn interest up to seven years from the date of death. Thereafter, the interest payment will cease.

The CPF spokesman added: "We are in the process of contacting Madam Rahayu to explain the details to her.

"We are also reviewing the process of disbursing nomination monies to see how we can improve it further."

Correction note: This report has been edited for clarity.