A man had been left living “out of food banks” for over a month after his EuroMillions lottery win wasn’t paid out. This is despite playing the lottery for over 30 years.
Pete Daly, 71 from the Wirral, won £582.20 over a month ago and has still yet to receive his winnings from the company.
Speaking with the Liverpool ECHO, Mr Daly recounted the difficulties he’s faced due to the delay, including having to rely on food banks and being unable to afford simple expenses like a new pair of shoes.
He said: “I have been paying for the lottery for 10 years, that is £10 a week, £1,040 every year for 30 years and I finally make £500 and they won’t give me it.
“Every time I ring them up I get a different story.”
Mr.Daly explained that upon realising he had a winning ticket for the first time in 30 years of playing the lottery, he paid off a number of expenses – including his car insurance renewal – counting on the money to “keep him afloat for the month.”
Thirty-three days later, and the money had not appeared in his account, leaving Mr Daly “living in food banks all month,” and “stuck in the house.”
“I can’t afford to go anywhere,” he told the ECHO. “I can’t afford the waste of fuel. I need this money. I’m struggling, money is the difference to being able to live. It sorts me to be able to live, not living well, but living.”
Mr. Daly spoke to members of the Allwyn team and was assured the money would be in his account within 10 days of filing his claim.
The lottery’s operator, Allwyn, has apologised for the delay in Mr Daly’s payment and have now contacted him with an update.
The operator has said that “following the introduction of a revised claims process that we had to bring in earlier this year following the Post Office’s decision to no longer pay National Lottery retail prizes between £500.01 and £50,000.”
However this has led to “a small number of these claims” being delayed as the company is continuing to work on new ways to help further improve the claims process and would like to reassure our winners that they will definitely receive their prize.”