Over £650,000 in unclaimed premium bond prizes remains unclaimed in Warwickshire.

According to new data released this week, there are 17,767 unclaimed prizes in the county with one winner yet to cash in on their £10,000.

That prize has sat unclaimed for 20 years after being drawn in January 2025.

In total there are £652,175 in prizes still unclaimed in Warwickshire.

One of these prizes - of just £25 - was drawn in May 1967.

Critics say the process to trace accounts needs reform as it is too difficult for people gifted them or those who only ever had paper records.

Each month in the UK, premium bonds are entered into a draw that could see holders win £1m, or smaller prizes of descending value down to £25.

National Savings and Investments (NS&I), the state-owned bank which operates the scheme, said every jackpot millionaire had received their money.

There are 17,767 unclaimed premium bond prizes in Warwickshire (Credit: LDRS)

Since the first draw in June 1957, its Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment – known as ERNIE – had drawn a total of 772 million prizes worth a combined £37bn.

Premium bonds prize winners should receive notifications of their winnings via text message, email or post if they have registered their details.

Some customers, however, relocate and forget to update their details.

Other bond holdings are not registered. For example, people may be unaware they were gifted bonds as children, or they were never given the paper certificate carrying the account numbers.

In Warwickshire there are over 100,000 registered accounts which have had no activity for 20 years or more.

Meanwhile there are nearly 30,000 accounts in the county which entered prize ballots in 2024-25. Collectively they won £50,588,475.

NS&I retail director Andrew Westhead said the bank recognised bonds purchased before digitalisation 'were much harder to trace'.

Sam Richardson, deputy editor from the consumer group Which? Money, said NS&I could 'make the process smoother' if it joined the government's Tell Us Once service, or the private equivalent, the Death Notification Service, which were 'often overlooked and undersubscribed' schemes aiming to simplify the process of notifying different organisations after a death.