A WOMAN who won thousands after paying just £3 for a lotto scratchcard claims she hasn’t seen a penny five weeks later.
Jennifer Gothard could not believe her luck after scooping £10,000 on her £3 “triple cashword” scratchcard back in March.
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Jumping with joy over her good luck, she immediately got in touch with the National Lottery to submit her claim.
But over a month later Jennifer is still waiting to hear back about her prize money.
The punter says that her current situation is “extremely frustrating”.
And she claims that she was told by the lotto that she will “just have to wait”.
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Speaking to The Gazette, Jennifer said: “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.
“I was so excited and happy about my big win. Finally, it was like I’d been given a break and the chance for a fresh start after a really tough few years.
“But I’m beginning to lose hope with the lack of communication, the timescales and generally the fact that I don’t have my win after five weeks.”
Now Jennifer says that she has started to worry whether they’ll pay out at all.
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After winning, Jennifer said she wants to use the money to “restart her life” after her marriage collapsed.
She continued: “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.
“It feels so good being able to treat her for a change.”
Jennifer’s mum survived a ruptured AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm) just two days after her win.
I won £1million lotto jackpot but shopkeeper told me my ticket was worth NOTHING… I took my revenge & got the lot
But she’s hoping that hitting the big money will help treat her mum to a well deserved break.
Jennifer continued: “Now we just need the National Lottery to pay up and the doctors to give my mum the ‘good to go’ and we can jet off somewhere sunny and nice.
“Oh and maybe I’ll treat myself to a new pair of boots!”
Allwyn, who took over the National Lottery last month, said around the UK are experiencing delays receiving prize money.
This is due to the Post Office opting not to renew its contract with the National Lottery.
It means, since February 1, Post Offices can no longer pay out cash prizes over £500.
As a result, Allwyn has had to make arrangements to pay out mid-tier prizes directly, rather than through the Post Office.
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.
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“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.”
Allwyn: The UK’s new national lottery operator
CAMELOT, who have been in charge since 1994, have been replaced by Allwyn, as chosen by the Gambling Commission.
New operator Allwyn changed the procedure for wins between £500 and £50,000 after the Post Office pulled out a 900-branch deal last month.
Post Office branches were the only shops where cheques for those sums could be given to winning punters — but they have now been blocked.
Instead, the operator, which took over from Camelot at the start of last month, insists winners verify their numbers online or over the phone before sending the ticket by post for inspection.
Allwyn is telling winners it wants tickets sent in for checks by its security operations team.
