How to claim a lottery prize in the UK
Where to claim by prize band, what you need to bring, and the 180-day deadline that ends every claim.
Every National Lottery prize has the same deadline: 180 days from the date of the draw. Miss it and the money goes to good causes, not to you. Where you claim depends only on how much you have won.
The five claim bands
| Prize | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £500 | Any National Lottery retailer | Paid over the counter. A shop may decline anything above £100 if it has not got the cash — try another retailer. |
| £500.01 – £30,000 | Post, or a Post Office branch that offers the service | Complete a claim form and send the ticket by Special Delivery, keeping the receipt and a photograph of both sides. |
| £30,000.01 – £50,000 | By post to the operator | Paid by bank transfer after validation. |
| Over £50,000 | By phone first, then in person | A validation meeting is arranged, usually at a regional centre or your home. |
| Monthly and annuity prizes | By phone | Set For Life and Powerball involve extra paperwork and, for Powerball, US tax forms. |
If you have an online account, prizes up to £500 are usually credited automatically and larger ones trigger an email telling you what to do next. Online claims still have to be completed before midnight on day 180.
What you need
- The ticket itself, signed on the back. It is a bearer document: whoever holds it is treated as the owner unless a signature says otherwise.
- Photo identification and proof of address for anything claimed away from a shop counter.
- Bank details in your own name for a transfer.
Count the 180 days properly
Day one is the day after the draw. A Saturday Lotto draw on 12 September 2026 must be claimed by 11 March 2027. There is a short seven-day extension procedure in the rules, but it is discretionary and not something to plan around. Scratchcards run 180 days from the day the game closes, not the day you bought the card, which is why a card can expire while it still looks perfectly current.
Before you throw anything away
Check every line, including the raffle or Millionaire Maker code printed underneath. Our ticket checker covers every draw game and the raffle codes, and nothing you type is stored. It is an information tool, though, not a substitute for the operator: only the operator's own record decides whether a ticket wins.
If something goes wrong
Damaged, faded or partly torn tickets can still be claimed, but the operator has to be able to validate them — see lost or damaged tickets. If a result changed after publication, our corrections log records what was altered and when, and how a draw becomes official explains why that can happen at all.