New National Lottery Claims Process Results in Winners Waiting Weeks for Prize Money

United Kingdom (April 28, 2024) — New National Lottery rules have been brought in which means some winners are having to wait for payouts. People who have seen their numbers come up have faced a struggle to get their hands on their prize money after the changes were brought in.

It comes after the National Lottery was taken over by Allwyn, a multi-national lottery operator, from Camelot in February of this year. Following the takeover, changes have been made to the way winners are able to collect their winnings as the Post Office are no longer handing out large rewards as was the case before.

This means that many have been left waiting weeks for their money to come through.

The new rules stipulate that winners of between £500 and £50,000 on Lottery games must follow the online process to receive their money, providing their name, address, contact details and email – as well as a Prize Claim Form – within 180 days of their win. They must also send their physical ticket into the office.

But, according to local media reports this has led to huge delays for some winners, who previously would have been able to pick up their money within hours or days of their win.

Yahoo News reported an Allwyn spokesperson said: “This is a new claims process we’ve had to introduce following the Post Office’s decision to no longer pay National Lottery retail prizes between £500.01 and £50,000. As a result of it being new, we’ve been experiencing higher volumes of players contacting us and some initial delays to players receiving their prizes.

“We’ve since increased the number of colleagues to assist with claims which is helping us send out prizes more quickly and are continuing to work to make improvements to the process. For example, we recently started a trial where anyone winning under £1,000 no longer needs to send in their winning ticket to us to help speed up the process. We’re also reminding players that prizes of up to £500 can still be paid out in store.”

Details of how to claim prize money from any of the National Lottery games can be found on the website.

SOURCE: Yahoo News.