Tue, 05 Aug 2025

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 £100m of premium bond prizes remain unclaimed

Critics want the system used to trace accounts to be reformed so people do not miss out on prizes.

* Over £100m in Premium Bond prizes remain unclaimed, with 11 winners of £100,000 among them.
* Critics say National Savings and Investments (NS&I) is not doing enough to find the winners, citing difficulties in tracing accounts for those who only have paper records or were gifted bonds as children.
* NS&I has paid over 99% of prize-winners since 1957, but the £103m in unclaimed prizes represents just 0.28% of the total £37bn awarded by ERNIE.
* The oldest unclaimed prize was £25 won in November 1957 in South Yorkshire.
* NS&I's tracing service has been contacted 781,576 times since March 2025, with 465,048 successful traces and 443,806 accounts found with value.
* Critics say the process needs reform to allow names, dates of birth, and address at time of purchase to be enough to locate an account.
* NS&I says it provides information online and through its call centre on how to claim winnings, but critics argue this is not sufficient.
* Some people who have lost their original paperwork or have inherited bonds from a deceased relative are facing difficulties in tracing their accounts.
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