Could you be a Premium Bond winner . . . but not know it?

There’s more than £61 million in unclaimed prizes. Now we’ve found where the winners live

SITTING in his office on a hot August afternoon, James Robertson was looking forward to the weekend ahead.

At that point, the IT professional had no idea his life was about to change for ever.

As his colleagues packed their bags to go home, a visitor arrived and asked James to go to a private room, where he was told he had won £1 million.

The mysterious visitor was an Agent Million — a man tasked by National Savings and Investments (NS&I) to find and inform lucky winners that they have scooped the biggest prize in the monthly Premium Bond draw.

But if it weren’t for a second dose of good fortune, James’s prize might have gone unclaimed.

The previous day, the Agent Million — who has to tell the winner the news in person and out of earshot of others — had arrived at an old address James and his wife had left two years earlier. James, who had forgotten to tell NS&I his new address, was only found as it was able to make contact using details from his records.

Thousands of other savers haven’t been so lucky; there are 180,000 prize cheques worth £8.2 million that have been returned to sender — usually because the bond owners have moved house and not notified NS&I.

In all, Premium Bond winnings worth more than £61 million are still waiting to be claimed.

The amount of prize money that has been left unclaimed — and which has now been sorted by location — reveals Premium Bond-holders in Manchester are missing out on nearly £2 million, and more than 40,000 prizes are unclaimed in Kent.

Around 79 billion Premium Bonds are held by 21 million savers, who can invest anything between £25 and £50,000.

Each £1 will buy you a Premium Bond, and each month winning numbers are drawn using Ernie, NS&I’s unique numbers machine.

This month, 3,292,546 prizes worth £94,111,900 were won — and two lucky bond-holders received £1 million each.

NS&I sends prizes worth less than £5,000 to winners in the form of warrants, which are similar to cheques. Those who win between £5,000 and £100,000 find out from a letter, which comes with a claim form. Jackpot winners are visited personally by one of NS&I’s Agent Millions.

Prizes can go unclaimed if the original owner of the bond has died and NS&I has not been notified, or if they move house and do not notify the Government’s savings arm.

They can also go unclaimed if the winner was bought Premium Bonds as a child and has forgotten about them, grown up and moved away.

If a bond-holder dies and NS&I isn’t immediately informed, the executor can claim for the estate any prizes the deceased has won 12 months after their death.

An executor can also choose whether to cash in the deceased’s bonds or keep them in draws up to a year after their death.

The oldest unclaimed prize dates back to the sixth Premium Bonds draw in November 1957 — and it’s worth £25.

New figures show there are five unclaimed £100,000 prizes, at least four £50,000 prizes and at least five £25,000 rewards.

Greater London is the region with the highest number of unclaimed prizes, with 302,789 in total — they’re worth £11,759,725.

It was followed by Greater Manchester, which has 48,061 unclaimed prizes worth £1,977,050.

There are a further 197,512 unclaimed prizes worth £8,822,075 where NS&I does not know the correct details for the rightful owners — perhaps because they have moved outside the UK or NS&I does not have an up-todate address for them.

In 2014, Premium Bond-holder James won the top prize with one of his 8,175 bond numbers.

However, as James had not told NS&I he had moved house, an Agent Million first went to his old address to deliver the good news.

‘When we moved I remember updating my bank with my new address and doing all those other things — the one thing I forgot to do was to tell NS&I we were moving,’ says James.

The father of two, who lives in Berkshire, says when the Agent Million turned up at his work the following day to inform him of his winnings, he was stunned.

He says: ‘I didn’t know what to think, my first reaction was just: “Wow”. When I got home I told my wife she needed to sit down and I said that we’d won £1 million. She completely freaked out, but then after that initial excitement we both decided it had to be a scam.’

James and his wife had invested £8,000 in Premium Bonds in 2013 after saving the money.

Since then, they had won around half a dozen £25 prizes and one £500 prize — reinvesting most into bonds and using some to overpay their mortgage.

Six months after their win, they had a meeting with a financial adviser and each deposited around £300,000 into an investment portfolio. Now, the couple, who have twin boys aged four, are reaping the rewards of their shrewd investments.

James was able to become self- employed, and he and his wife also enjoyed a holiday to San Francisco.

‘It’s not like we live particularly different lives, we haven’t massively changed our living standards,’ says James.

‘It’s about having the money to feel secure and making sure the children are set for the future.’

To find out if you have an unclaimed prize, write to NS&I, Glasgow G58 1SB with your personal details and any information you have about your account — such as your bond-holder’s number and account number.

If you have lost details of your account, want to register updated details, or want to notify NS&I of a bond-holder’s death, you can telephone NS&I on 08085 007 007.