Unclaimed! £128m in lottery wins
MANY people daydream about what it would be like to win the lottery. Well, quite a few of them have – apparently without realising it.
Thousands of Britons have missed out on life-changing windfalls, with almost £128million in prizes going unclaimed last year.
Winners have 180 days to claim their cash, and there are 13 prizes still waiting to be collected, ranging from £59,160 to £1million.
Once the deadline has been reached, the prize money and interest earned on it are forfeited and given to worthy causes. Last year’s total was up by £15.5million on 2014, according to information released following a Freedom of Information request.
More than £1.4billion has gone unclaimed since the Lotto started in 1994.
The biggest unclaimed prizes include a £63.8million Euro Millions win in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, from 2012, a £9.5million prize won in Doncaster in 2005, and a Euro Millions scoop of £6.9million in Devon in 2007.