New campaign to track down 900,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes

A nationwide campaign has been launched to track down hundreds of thousands of people who have unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, worth a total of £44 million.

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) is searching for 898,000 Premium Bond winners, with unclaimed prizes ranging from £25 to £100,000.

According to officials, the unclaimed money includes two prizes of £100,000, which are owed to a woman from London, and another from Manchester.

The oldest unclaimed prize of £25 belongs to a man in South Yorkshire and dates back to 1957.

There is no time limit for claiming prizes, although inflation will gradually erode the value of any win.

‘Prizes often become unclaimed as a result of people moving house, or forgetting that bonds have been bought for them as a child, or executors are unaware the bonds are held when someone dies,’ explained Jill Walters, NS&I's operations manager.

Individuals are advised to inform NS&I of any change in their personal details or to arrange for their winnings to be paid directly into their bank account by BACS, thus reducing the chance of a prize going unclaimed.

An estimated 20 million people are thought to have invested a total of £45 billion in Premium Bonds.

Instead of paying interest, bond holders are entered into a monthly prize draw with a £1 million jackpot and over a million other tax-free cash prizes.

Bond holders can check whether they have won a prize by visiting www.nsandi.com.