National Lottery winner still waiting for £10,000 prize thanks to new rule

A National Lottery winner who scooped a £10,000 jackpot on a £3 scratchcard has been left waiting for her prize due to a new rule that delayed her winnings.

Jennifer Gothard won the substantial prize from her Triple Cashword scratchcard game back in March, but five weeks later, she's still waiting for her cash. Describing her situation as "extremely frustrating", Jennifer said that they couldn't even confirm whether she'd genuinely won or not. She was informed there was a significant backlog of claims to process and hers was yet to be checked.

Jennifer shared her initial excitement at the win and her plans to use the money to take her mum on holiday. However, she admitted she was beginning to "lose hope" as she was still awaiting her winnings five weeks later, according to Birmingham Live.

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An Allwyn spokesperson responded: "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."