How could anyone forget they won the lottery?

Camelot has been urging people to check their lottery tickets from 9 January, to see if they are the lucky winner with an incredible £33 million waiting for them. It visited Worcester, where the winning ticket was bought, and reminded people to check down the side of the sofa, in their pockets, wallets, and glove compartments, to see if they have the winning ticket. It seems impossible that someone would snap up a ticket for such a popular draw, and then fail to check it, but you'd be surprised how often this happens.
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Unclaimed

You have 180 days from the date of the draw to collect your prize - after which it is given to good causes. Aside from this incredible win, there are plenty of other unclaimed prizes sitting on the Lottery's books. Among the biggest is a EuroMillions win of £1 million - plus an exclusive trip to New York - which was won on 31st July last year. The winner (who bought their ticket in Cheltenham) only has until 17th of this month to claim.

Other outstanding £1 million winners include a number who won a raffle prize. These consist of one bought in Tameside, one bought in Huntingdonshire and one bought in Leeds - all drawn on 10th October last year. There was also a £1m raffle bought in West Lancashire and drawn on 21st November, one bought in Rochdale and drawn on 5th December, and one bought in East Staffordshire and drawn on Boxing Day.

There are also two EuroMillions Millionaire Makers - one bought in Swansea and drawn on 22nd December and the other bought in Preston and drawn on 5th January.

The biggest unclaimed win at the moment is one for £4,668,787 bought in Barking and Dagenham and drawn on 12th September last year.

You can check the full list of unclaimed prizes on the National Lottery website.

Plenty of prizes go unclaimed every week - and an incredible £75 million in prizes is unclaimed each year. We reported back in October on the million pound prize that was never claimed, but back in 2012 there was a £63.8 million EuroMillions win that nobody came forward to claim.

How?

There are a few reasons why these prizes go unclaimed. One of the most simple is that people don't check all the way through their ticket. One of the reason there are so many £1 million outstanding raffle prizes is because people check their numbers, but fail to realise that by buying a ticket they are automatically entered into a raffle to win £1 million prizes - and fail to check that part of the ticket.

Then, of course, are the people who forget to check the numbers at all. Back in 2012 Alan and Kim Elliott from Aspley in Nottingham picked up a £1 million EuroMillions win, after a delay of 2 months. They admitted they had stuck the ticket to the fridge and hadn't got around to checking it for all that time. One of the most striking delays, however, was in October 2014, when James Wilson claimed his £52,000 EuroMillions win the day before it expired. He'd found an old ticket lurking in his wallet and thought he's better check it.

Finally, some people lose their ticket, and over the years there have been heartbreaking stories of people who swore they bought a ticket - but mislaid it. One couple won £3 million but lost their ticket. They told the National Lottery of their predicament, and they investigated and concluded the couple did indeed buy the ticket. Unfortunately, because they didn't make their claim within 30 days of the draw, they didn't get a penny.

The National Lottery has no obligation to pay for any lost tickets, but if you put a claim in within 30 days of the draw, it may choose to investigate. If you can tell them details of when you bought the ticket, which draw it was for, the name of the shop you got it from, and the number of lines you played, you may improve your chances of having the winnings paid out.

This may be a good time to ask yourself, are you sure you've checked all your lottery tickets?