Are YOU sitting on unclaimed Lottery hundreds of thousands?
If you have an old lottery ticket or scratchcard lying around and can’t recall whether you’ve looked over the numbers, it might be a good time to check.
Wealth & Personal Finance can reveal over £57.6 million worth of prizes went unclaimed by Lotto, Euromillions and scratchcard players in the ten months to the end of January.
Prizes range from a few pounds on a scratchcard up to millions of pounds, National Lottery operator Allwyn says. They must be claimed 180 days after the closing date of the draw or else be lost.
The unclaimed winnings represent 1.54 per cent of the total £3.7 billion awarded in prizes over the period.
A punter in Buckinghamshire has won the ‘Set For Life’ prize – which pays winners £10,000 every month for a year – for matching five numbers. They have until May to claim their prize. The biggest winner resides in Sevenoaks, Kent – they matched all six numbers, paying £10,000 every month for 30 years. They have until April to request their funds.
There is also a Euromillions prize worth more than £300,000 bought in Winchester that has gone unclaimed since the draw on November 19.
Fortune: Over £57.6 million worth of prizes went unclaimed by Lotto, Euromillions and scratchcard players in the ten months to the end of January
To check whether you might be a Euromillions winner, you’ll need to look at the bottom of your ticket – it will have a code made up of four letters and five numbers. To win, your unique set must match the raffle code. Go to national-lottery.co.uk/results/unclaimed-prizes to see the full list of winners.
If you believe you had a winning ticket which has since been lost, stolen or damaged, you’ll need to get in touch with the National Lottery within 30 days and complete a form on www.cdn-national-lottery.co.uk/c/files/LSD-form.pdf.
You’ll be asked information about where and when you bought your ticket, the name of the game and date of potential winning draw. You’ll then have to email the form to [email protected] or post it to the National Lottery.
Unclaimed prizes are passed over to National Lottery Good Causes and distributed to the Arts Council, UK Sport and the Lottery Heritage Fund.
