A LOTTO punter has told how she scooped £10,000 on a £3 scratchcard – but hasn’t received a penny.
Jennifer Gothard claims she has been “ghosted” by the National Lottery after winning the whopping sum back in March.
After discovering her win she immediately got in touch to claim her prize – but five weeks later she is yet to hear back.
Jennifer, who lives in Cleveleys, told the Blackpool Gazette: “It’s extremely frustrating. 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.
“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.”
Jennifer had been looking forward to collecting her money after “a really tough few years”.
But now she is beginning to lose hope – and is starting to worry whether they’ll pay out at all.
She explained: “This is really the jump start I’ve been working towards, to restart my life again after my marriage collapsed.
“It means I can finally start working to live, rather than living to work, for the first time in what feels like forever.
“I will finally be debt free, and maybe get ahead on a couple of payments.
“But most of all I can finally get divorced, do some decorating and enjoy a much-needed holiday for me and my mum.”
Allwyn replaced Camelot as the National Lottery operator on February 1.
It has changed payout rules so prizes between £500 and £50,000 can no longer be collected from Post Offices.
Sources said that had led to early “teething problems”.
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.”
