£1.1bn of Lottery money goes unclaimed

An average of £68m a year of Lottery money is left unclaimed. Here's how to ensure you don't miss out.

I’m sure I am not the only one who regularly dreams about winning the lottery. After all, imagine what you could do with all that cash! Buy a bigger house, help your kids through their education, retire comfortably, buy a yacht and sail round the world... the possibilities are endless.

Of course, for most of us, that dream is unlikely to become reality. But if you were to win the jackpot, it seems impossible to imagine not claiming your money.

Yet, according to the National Lottery, an average of £68 million a year is left unclaimed by winners, simply because people don’t check their numbers. That means that over the 17 year period in which the National Lottery has been running, a total of £1.1bn of Lottery money has remained unclaimed.

This figure includes twice-weekly draws, Lottery scratchcards, online games and the Euromillions draw.

Out of this, the biggest unclaimed prize was for £9.4 million from a winning ticket bought in Doncaster back in 2005. What a waste! You can view a list of some of the most recent prizes to go unclaimed here.

All of this seems pretty hard to believe. After all, if people don’t want to claim their winnings, I’ll quite happily have the money, thank you very much. But if you do play the Lottery, here’s how to ensure you don’t miss out on your prize money.

Have you won?

You can play the Lottery by buying a ticket at your nearest National Lottery retailer (look for the crossed fingers symbol), or even by text or direct debit.

If you regularly play the Lottery, the most obvious way of ensuring you don’t miss out on your millions is to watch the live draws on television* and check and double check your ticket against the winning numbers. You can find out when the next draw show is on here.

However, if you’re out at the time of the draw, make sure you record the programme or check out the results later on online at the National Lottery website.

Meanwhile, if you're playing by text or direct debit and you win, you'll be notified by text message or by email - so make sure you regularly check your texts and emails!

If you have an iPhone, you can also download the free National Lottery app for a really easy way to check the results. You can also store your numbers, select the draw you wish to check, and it will tell you whether there are any matches!

So there’s really no excuse!

After all, if you’re forking out £1 or £2 a week for your ticket (if not more), there’s no point assuming you haven’t won and failing to check the results. If you’re prone to forgetting, set a reminder on your phone!

How to claim

If you’re lucky enough to win something, however small, there are various ways to claim your cash:

Up to £100

You can claim your prize from any National Lottery retailer when you present your winning ticket. The retailer will then validate your ticket. If you prefer, you can check the validation slip to ensure it matches the amount you expect to be paid out and then return it to the retailer. You’ll then receive your money.

Over £100 and up to £500

National Lottery retailers can also pay prizes between £100 and £500 at their discretion if you present them with your ticket.

If they’re unable to pay out, you can return to the same retailer at a later date when funds are available – whether or not your ticket has been validated. Or if your ticket hasn’t been validated (and only if it hasn’t), you can go to another retailer instead or to a National Lottery Post Office.

Over £500 and up to £50,000

If you’ve won up to £50,000 you can claim your prize from any National Lottery Post Office, providing you present your winning ticket. You will need to fill out a prize claim form before you’ll be given your money – this will be by cheque. You’ll also have to give proof of identity.

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Over £50,000

If you’re really lucky and you’ve won more than £50,000, you need to claim your prize in person at home or at another agreed location or at a Regional Centre**. You’ll be paid by cheque or direct credit and you will need to complete a prize claim form and provide proof of identity.

If you’re claiming a large prize, additional checks on your ticket may also be carried out.

Claim by post

If you prefer, you can also claim prizes up to £50,000 by post – however, the National Lottery accepts no responsibility for tickets lost in the post. You should send your winning ticket and completed prize claim form (for prizes over £500 only – you will need to get your form from a National Lottery retailer) to:

The National Lottery

Accounts Dept

PO Box 287

Watford

WD18 9TT

What happens if you don’t claim your cash

You have 180 days after the draw date to claim your winnings. So in other words, around six months. That’s a fairly significant time period in which to do so – and if you have won your millions, why wait?

However, if you fail to make your claim within this time frame, you’re going to lose out – big time.

Instead of going to you, the money will go to the National Lottery’s Good Causes . This means it is distributed to several sectors, including health education and charitable causes (50%), sports (16.67%), arts (16.67%) and heritage (16.67%).

So the money certainly doesn’t go to waste and it is a great cause, but you may prefer it to go into your own bank account!

Online games

It’s worth noting here that I have focused on the big prize draws*. The rules are slightly different if you play lottery games online.

That’s because you will need to register for an account before you can play and you’ll need to supply a debit card number. You’ll always be notified on-screen if you win and how much you’ve won. Or if you play using your mobile phone, you’ll be notified via text message.

And if you’ve also entered a prize draw, providing you have an online account, you’ll also be notified online or by text message.

Prizes up to and including £500 will be automatically credited to your account. If you’ve won between £501 and £5,000, you’ll be prompted online to transfer the money to your debit card so it can then be credited to your bank account.

Meanwhile, if you’ve won more than £5,000, you will need to contact the National Lottery Customer Care Team on 0845 278 8000 to validate your claim and you’ll then be taken through the claim process.

And for prizes over £50,000, again you will need to phone the above number so you can arrange to process your prize claim in person. You can view the full details here.

Finally, don’t forget that the chances of winning the lottery are very small, so you may prefer to do something sensible with your money instead – such as putting it into a savings account or paying off a credit card bill. And if you do play the Lottery, make sure you’re not gambling with money you can’t afford to lose!

*For Lotto, EuroMillions, Thunderball, Lotto HotPicks, Dream Number, and Daily Play.

**Located in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Reigate, Sunderland and Watford.

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