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A National Lottery winner who hit the jackpot winning £10,000 win on a £3 scratchcard has been left penniless due to a new rule that delayed her winnings. Jennifer Gothard scooped the hefty prize from her Triple Cashword scratchcard game back in March, but five weeks later, she’s still waiting for her cash.
She described her situation as “extremely frustrating” and told an interview with The Gazette they couldn’t even tell her whether she’d really won or not. She said she had been told there was a big backlog of claims to get through and they were still to check hers.
Jennifer told how she had been “excited” at the win and had hoped to spend money on taking her mum on holiday. However she said she was starting to “lose hope” as five weeks down the line she was still waiting for her money, reports Birmingham Live.
An Allwyn spokesperson commented: “We’re very sorry to hear of Ms Gothard’s concerns and will be in touch with her with an update. 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 (what we call ‘mid-tier prizes’).”
“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’d like to reassure anyone affected that they will receive their prize.”
