I won £10,000 on a scratchcard but the National Lottery are 'ghosting' me

A scratchcard winner says she's gone from 'cloud nine' to feeling 'utterly deflated' after claiming she is being 'ghosted' by the National Lottery over her winnings. Jennifer Gothard said she was "over the moon" after winning £10,000 on her £3 triple cashword scratchcard in March.

Jumping with joy over her good luck, she immediately got in touch with the National Lottery to submit her claim but five weeks later Jennifer says she is still waiting to hear back about her prize money, the Gazette reports. "It's extremely frustrating," said Jennifer, who lives in Lancashire. "It's been over a month and I still have my scratchcard and have not had a penny of my £10,000 prize. I got off the phone with them the other day and was basically told I'll just have to wait."

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She added: "They can't even tell me whether I've really won or not. They apparently have a big backlog of claims to get through and they still haven't got around to checking mine. To be honest, I've gone from being over moon and on cloud nine to feeling completely deflated.

"I was so excited and happy about my big win. Finally, it was like I'd been given a break and the chance for a fresh start after a really tough few years. But I'm beginning to lose hope with the lack of communication, the timescales and generally the fact that I don't have my win after five weeks. I'm starting to worry whether they'll pay out at all."

A National Lottery spokesperson said: "We're sorry to hear about Ms. Gothard's experience. We can confirm that she has contacted us about her claim and we are currently investigating the matter. We will be in touch with her as soon as possible."

Allwyn, the new operators of the National Lottery, have explained that winners across the UK are facing delays in receiving their prize money due to the Post Office deciding not to renew its contract with the National Lottery.

Since February 1, Post Offices are no longer authorised to issue cash prizes over £500. Consequently, Allwyn has had to arrange direct payments for mid-tier prizes, bypassing the previous arrangement with the Post Office.

An Allwyn spokesperson said: "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."