NS&I provides comprehensive information on its website and through its call centre on the purchasing and administration of Premium Bonds, including helping Premium Bond holders trace new and unclaimed prizes, and their original investment. NS&I also publishes details on unclaimed prizes every month alongside Premium Bonds winners’ details and, in addition, engages with the media to encourage customers to use its prize checker and tracing services.

Premium Bond holders with original paper Bonds such as those purchased over the counter at the Post Office, can register them online or by calling NS&I’s helpline. Holders who do not have internet access or cannot print off a form can request a form by phone or in writing.

Finally, Premium Bond holders who have lost historic certificates, or who do not have their Bond or NS&I number, can use NS&I’s dedicated tracing service by post or online. Holders can also use MyLostAccount which can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as with NS&I.

Premium Bonds are never lost and NS&I pays out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the Bonds were purchased.

NS&I provides information on its website and through its call centre to help Premium Bonds holders trace unclaimed prizes and their original investment. NS&I also publishes details on unclaimed prizes every month alongside Premium Bonds winners’ details and engages with the media to encourage customers to use its prize checker and tracing services.

Premium Bonds holders with original paper Bonds such as those purchased over the counter at the Post Office, can register them online or by calling NS&I’s helpline. Holders who do not have internet access or cannot print off a form can request a form by phone or in writing.

Finally, Premium Bonds holders who have lost historic certificates, or who do not have their Bond or NS&I number, can use NS&I’s dedicated tracing service by post or online. Holders can also use MyLostAccount which can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as NS&I

Premium Bonds are never lost and NS&I pays out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the Bonds were purchased.

NS&I provides information on its website and through its call centre to help Premium Bonds holders trace unclaimed prizes and their original investment. NS&I also publishes details on unclaimed prizes every month alongside Premium Bonds winners’ details and engages with the media to encourage customers to use its prize checker and tracing services.

Premium Bonds holders with original paper Bonds such as those purchased over the counter at the Post Office, can register them online or by calling NS&I’s helpline. Holders who do not have internet access or cannot print off a form can request a form by phone or in writing.

Finally, Premium Bonds holders who have lost historic certificates, or who do not have their Bond or NS&I number, can use NS&I’s dedicated tracing service by post or online. Holders can also use MyLostAccount which can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as NS&I

Premium Bonds are never lost and NS&I pays out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the Bonds were purchased.

NS&I provides information on its website and through its call centre to help Premium Bonds holders trace unclaimed prizes and their original investment. NS&I also publishes details on unclaimed prizes every month alongside Premium Bonds winners’ details and engages with the media to encourage customers to use its prize checker and tracing services.

Premium Bonds holders with original paper Bonds such as those purchased over the counter at the Post Office, can register them online or by calling NS&I’s helpline. Holders who do not have internet access or cannot print off a form can request a form by phone or in writing.

Finally, Premium Bonds holders who have lost historic certificates, or who do not have their Bond or NS&I number, can use NS&I’s dedicated tracing service by post or online. Holders can also use MyLostAccount which can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as NS&I

Premium Bonds are never lost and NS&I pays out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the Bonds were purchased.

NS&I provides information on its website and through its call centre to help Premium Bonds holders trace unclaimed prizes and their original investment. NS&I also publishes details on unclaimed prizes every month alongside Premium Bonds winners’ details and engages with the media to encourage customers to use its prize checker and tracing services.

Premium Bonds holders with original paper Bonds such as those purchased over the counter at the Post Office, can register them online or by calling NS&I’s helpline. Holders who do not have internet access or cannot print off a form can request a form by phone or in writing.

Finally, Premium Bonds holders who have lost historic certificates, or who do not have their Bond or NS&I number, can use NS&I’s dedicated tracing service by post or online. Holders can also use MyLostAccount which can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as NS&I

Premium Bonds are never lost and NS&I pays out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the Bonds were purchased.

The Government keeps the Premium Bond investment limit under review, to ensure that the limit continues to reflect the interests of savers, taxpayers, and the wider financial sector.

According to National Savings and Investments (NS&I), in the 2023/24 there were:

• 4,520,011 Premium Bonds sales under the value of £100, which equates to 32.3% of all Premium Bonds sales.
• 10,344,803 Premium Bonds sales under the value of £1,000, which equates to 74.0% of all Premium Bonds sales.
• 12,991,219 Premium Bonds sales of under £10,000, which equates to 97.4% of all Premium Bonds sales.

This does not include the value of any prizes that were reinvested into Premium Bonds.

Further information on investments received in 2023/24, across NS&I’s products, can be found in its latest Annual Reports and Accounts published earlier this year.

NS&I raises cost effective finance for government from the retail savings market. It does this through offering savings products to consumers, including Premium Bonds. Funds raised by NS&I from these products, including Premium Bonds, flow to the National Loans Fund (NLF). The NLF is the government’s main borrowing and lending account, and to this end, it undertakes borrowing (primarily by issuing gilts via the Debt Management Office) and uses proceeds and other central government surplus balances, including funds from NS&I’s Premium Bonds, to manage its cash needs day-to-day.

The Exchequer’s cash needs are managed on an aggregate basis, meaning funds raised from Premium Bonds are not held in a separate account and do not receive a separate rate of return (which in any case is determined by the market as the government is ultimately a price taker). Therefore, there is not a single rate of return on NS&I proceeds and it would not be possible to provide an estimate of returns from retaining the proceeds of Premium Bonds.

When a customer divests their holdings of Premium Bonds, these repayments are also funded via the NLF’s activities and are typically processed within three working days. However, in exceptional circumstances, such as Bank Holidays, this may take longer. This process allows HM Treasury to manage Exchequer cashflows in a cost effective manner.

The Government keeps the Premium Bond investment limit under review, to ensure that the limit continues to reflect the interests of savers, taxpayers, and the wider financial sector.

The Government does not currently have plans to change the amount of money which individuals can hold in Premium Bonds. However, the Government keeps this under review to ensure that the limit continues to reflect the interests of savers, taxpayers and the wider financial sector.

The Secretary of State has not held any recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of simplifying the acceptance of Premium Bonds as a form of cash saving for the process of meeting income thresholds.

As required by legislation governing NS&I, NS&I will request a Grant of Probate for any holding over £5,000. Making payment without probate comes with some risk, as there could be a subsequent successful claim on the deceased’s estate. The cost of having to pay out against a second claim would be borne by the taxpayer.

The Government will keep under review the effect of increasing the probate limit that applies to customer holdings in National Savings and Investments (NS&I).

The current Premium Bonds investment limit is £50,000, which is set out in UK legislation. When setting the investment limit, HM Treasury and NS&I must strike a balance between the differing needs of savers, taxpayers and the wider financial sector. While some customers would wish to invest more than the current limit in Premium Bonds, raising the limit could lead to the scheme becoming dominated by a small number of people with large investments. NS&I has found from experience that customers are sensitive to taking part in a prize draw in which some people hold a very large number of bonds. In addition, NS&I is sensitive to changing the investment limit in a way that disadvantages other banks and firms that offer rates of interest with similar returns to Premium Bonds.

In setting interest rates for its products, NS&I must balance the interests of savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services sector.

With unprecedented Government funding requirements in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic measures and amid significant uncertainty and volatility in the retail savings market, NS&I experienced unprecedented upside pressures on its Net Financing. In the first six months of 2020-21, NS&I raised a total of £38.3 billion of Net Financing for the Government, so a decision was taken to reduce the Premium Bond rates to mitigate the risk of NS&I exceeding its £35 billion (+/- £5 billion) Net Financing target.

More broadly, it is important that Government takes into account taxpayer value considerations when making financing decisions. With gilt yields at low levels for the majority of the past year, the Government financing raised through NS&I has been more expensive than that raised through gilt issuance.

The current Premium Bond investment limit is £50,000, which is also set out in UK legislation. In line with NS&I’s operating framework, when setting the Premium Bond investment limit, HM Treasury and NS&I must strike a balance between the differing needs of savers, taxpayers and the wider financial sector. While some customers may wish to invest more than the current limit in Premium Bonds, raising the limit can lead to the scheme becoming dominated by a small number of people with large investments. Customers are sensitive to taking part in a prize draw in which some people hold a very large number of bonds. NS&I offer a number of other savings products with a higher investment limit than that of Premium Bonds.

Approximately 21.9 million people have held at least £1 in Premium Bonds in each of the last 30 months between September 2018 and March 2021. This figure includes customers that held Premium Bonds in September 2018 and have maintained a positive balance of £1 or more up to March 2021.

As of July 2019, there are currently 1,905,681 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth £69,850,900. NS&I considers a prize as unclaimed when it has not been paid to or cashed in by the Bond holder within 18 months of the prize being issued.

There are no £1 million prizes unclaimed. NS&I undertakes regular media activity to raise awareness of unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes. NS&I also encourages customers to have Premium Bonds prizes paid directly to their bank accounts to reduce the risk of prizes going unclaimed.

Table: Total value and number of unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes