If you have an old lottery ticket or scratch card lying around and you can’t remember if you checked the numbers, it might be a good time to check.
Wealth & Personal Finance can reveal that more than £57.6 million in 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 scratch card to millions of pounds, says National Lottery operator Allwyn. They must be claimed 180 days after the draw closing date or they will be lost.
The unclaimed winnings represent 1.54 per cent of the total £3.7bn in prizes awarded during the period.
A punter from Buckinghamshire has won the ‘Set For Life’ prize, which pays winners £10,000 every month for a year, for matching five numbers. You have until May to claim your prize. The biggest winner resides in Sevenoaks, Kent – they matched all six numbers and paid £10,000 every month for 30 years. You have until April to request your funds.
There is also a EuroMillions prize worth more than £300,000 purchased in Winchester which has not been claimed since the draw on November 19.
Fortune: More than £57.6 million in prizes went unclaimed by Lotto, EuroMillions and scratchcard players in the ten months to the end of January.
To check if you can be a EuroMillions winner, you should look at the bottom of your ticket: it will have a code made up of four letters and five numbers. To win, your unique outfit must match the giveaway 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 that was lost, stolen or damaged, you will need to contact the National Lottery within 30 days and complete a form at www.cdn-national-lottery.co.uk/c/files/ LSD-form.pdf.
You will be asked for information about where and when you purchased your ticket, the name of the game, and the date of the potential winning drawing. You will then need to email the form to lostticketnotice@national-lottery.co.uk or post it on the National Lottery.
Unclaimed prizes are transferred to National Lottery Good Causes and distributed to the Arts Council, UK Sport and the Lottery Heritage Fund.