A OAP recipient of EuroMillions has been forced to use food banks whilst waiting for his lottery payout.
Pete Daly,71, told the Liverpool Echo that he was the lucky winner of the Euromillions lottery 34 days ago. But, the Wirral-based man is yet to receive his winnings.
The peeved pensioner won £582.20 in the lottery in July, celebrating the news by paying off his car insurance. But after waiting over a month for the winning sum, Mr Daly is now having to resort to using food banks.
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Mr Daly explained: “When I found out I had won I paid my car insurance off with my entire cash for the month because I was thinking this money would come in to keep me afloat for the month. So, I’ve been living in food banks all month because it hasn’t come in.”
(Image: Pete Daly)
After contacting the National Lottery, Mr Daly explained “I won £582.20 and every time I ring them up I get a different story. I have been paying for the lottery for 10 years, that is £10 a week, £1,040 every year for 30 years and I finally make £500 and they won’t give me it.”
The lottery reported they have since contacted the pensioner to assure him his winnings will be with him soon, but Mr Daly still finds himself in a dire situation. He added: “I can’t afford a haircut, I need new shoes.
“I can’t afford anything because I paid for the car insurance thinking I’d get this money within 10 days. I’m stuck in the house, I can’t afford to go anywhere, I can’t afford the waste of fuel.
“I need this money, I’m struggling, money is the difference to being able to live, it sorts me to be able to live, not living well, but living.”
(Image: Getty Images)
A spokesperson for the lottery operator Allwyn responded: “We’re very sorry to hear the concerns raised and colleagues have now called Mr Daly with an update. We successfully process hundreds – sometimes thousands – of prize claims every week.”
However, the spokesperson claim that Royal Mail is partly to blame for the delay: “This is following the introduction of a revised claims process that we had to bring in earlier this year following the Post Office’s decision to no longer pay National Lottery retail prizes between £500.01 and £50,000.
“Unfortunately, a small number of these claims are delayed for various reasons.”
The spokesperson also added that the National Lottery are working on improving their claims process, and wish to reassure winners that they’ll “definitely receive” their prize money.
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