How to claim a Powerball prize in the UK

If you bought your ticket in a shop

In a shop, you have to claim during its normal opening hours and by 11.55pm on the last day of the claim period at the latest. If a retailer can't pay, or tells you the ticket isn't a winner and you disagree, contact The National Lottery: its phone numbers and opening hours are on its how to claim page.

If you played online

Direct Debit isn't available for Powerball, so the automatic payment of prizes up to £50,000 that Direct Debit players get on some other games doesn't apply.

Prizes over £50,000, including the £1 million Match 5

For any prize over £50,000, the first step is a phone call. The National Lottery registers your win, checks it and arranges a date and time for you to claim in person. You'll need the ticket if you played in a shop, a completed prize claim form and proof of identity and age, and Allwyn may carry out identity checks and photograph you for its records.

Match 5 pays a fixed £1 million in the UK, and four UK players had won it by 5 November 2026. Only the jackpot is paid over 30 years; Match 5 and the other prizes aren't. If you win big:

• Keep the ticket safe and check the result carefully, on our results page or The National Lottery's.
• Call The National Lottery to register your win, well within the 180 days.
• Think before you tell people. Decide who needs to know, and whether you want any publicity at all.
• Take independent advice from a financial adviser and a solicitor before making big decisions.
• Be alert to scams. Big winners attract fake advisers, and nobody genuine will ask you for money to release a prize; see how to avoid Powerball scams.

Claiming the jackpot, step by step

A Powerball jackpot won in the UK is claimed from Allwyn, not from MUSL or an American lottery, and always in person. This is how it works:

1. Phone first. Call The National Lottery within the 180-day claim period. You'll be asked for your name, date of birth and contact details and, if you played in a shop, where you bought the ticket.
2. Validation meeting. At Allwyn's head office or another place in the UK, you confirm your details and fill in a prize claim form and US tax forms, which record your citizenship, residence and tax residence. If you played in a shop, you hand over the ticket. The forms are sent to MUSL.
3. The money arrives from the US. MUSL transfers the jackpot, or your share of it, less any US withholding tax that applies to you, and Allwyn converts it into pounds at the exchange rate at the time.
4. Payment meeting. With the annuity broker appointed by Allwyn, you choose whether your first payment is 1% or 2% of that sum, and it's paid by bank transfer or cheque. You also fill in the annuity application and provide your birth certificate or a copy of your full passport.
5. The annuity. The rest buys a 29-year annuity from a provider authorised in the UK or the Isle of Man. The first annuity payment arrives about a year after the first payment, and the payments rise every year.

Once it's set up, the annuity can't be changed, surrendered or cashed in. If you die before all the payments have been made, the provider pays a lump sum to your estate. How the jackpot grows, and why the UK figure is advertised after tax, is explained in the Powerball jackpot.

When a lump sum is paid, and syndicates

In the UK the jackpot is only paid over 30 years, except in four cases where Allwyn pays a lump sum instead:

• The claim is made by the personal representative of a player who has died.
• A syndicate of more than 35 members chooses it.
• The winner isn't resident in the UK or the Isle of Man when they claim.
• An annuity can't be arranged for reasons outside Allwyn's control.

A lump sum is always lower than the advertised jackpot, because the advertised figure is the total a winner expects to receive over 30 years, including what the annuity earns. The lump sum is the jackpot money as it arrives from the US, converted into pounds, less any US withholding tax.

If a syndicate wins, Allwyn deals only with the syndicate manager, who must give full details of every member, and every member fills in US tax forms. With up to 35 members, the manager receives the first payment to share out and each member gets their own 29-year annuity. With more than 35, the manager chooses between the lump sum and a single annuity in their own name, and is responsible for sharing it out as the syndicate agreed.

Tax and publicity

National Lottery prizes are tax-free in the UK, and the advertised Powerball jackpot is already an after-tax figure, worked out at the highest UK tax rate. The first jackpot payment isn't taxed. Each annuity payment is made up of capital and interest: the capital part is usually tax-free and the interest part is taxable, and how much you pay depends on your circumstances, including your age.

Because the jackpot money comes from the US, US withholding tax may be deducted depending on your circumstances, for example if you aren't a UK tax resident. Allwyn recommends independent financial and tax advice, and so do we: this page isn't tax advice.

Going public is your choice: The National Lottery doesn't reveal a winner's identity without their consent. With the Powerball jackpot, though, Allwyn has to pass your details to MUSL and to the annuity broker and provider, some of them may be processed outside the European Economic Area, and Allwyn can't guarantee that those third parties will keep your identity confidential.

The 180-day deadline and lost tickets

Every Powerball prize must be claimed within 180 days of the draw. Each draw has its own deadline, so if a Multi-Draw ticket covers several draws, a prize from the first one expires 180 days after that draw, not after the last. If you tell The National Lottery before the deadline that you intend to claim in person, you can still claim up to seven days after it. After that, unclaimed prizes are forfeited and the money goes to National Lottery good causes.

Write your name and address on the back of a paper ticket: if it's lost, only the person named on it can claim. If you think a lost, stolen or destroyed ticket would have won, write to Allwyn's Winner Services Department at The National Lottery, PO Box 287, Watford, WD18 9TT, or email [email protected]. Your notice must arrive by 5pm on the 30th day after the draw and include your contact details, when and where you bought the ticket, the draws it was for and your numbers. If you only tell Allwyn later, within the 180 days, it can only consider your claim if the ticket is handed in.

If a ticket is damaged and won't scan, a retailer can try to enter its number by hand. If it's beyond reading, you can send it to The National Lottery, with your name and contact details, before the end of the claim period.

If you don't live in the UK

You can only win Powerball in the UK with an entry bought in the UK or the Isle of Man. To play online you must live there and be there when you buy; visitors can buy a ticket in a shop, but they have to claim in the UK, because Allwyn can't pay or send prizes abroad, even by bank transfer. A non-resident who wins between £500.01 and £50,000 is asked to claim in person at Allwyn's regional centre in Watford, or to nominate someone to collect the cheque.

If you aren't resident in the UK or the Isle of Man when you claim the jackpot, you receive a lump sum instead of the annuity, and US withholding tax may apply. The National Lottery treats you as resident if you've been in the UK or the Isle of Man for more than 183 days in the previous 12 months.

Frequently asked questions