£90m in Premium Bond prizes paid out this month

Two people have won the maximum £1 million prize this month, days after Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that the minimum amount you can save in Premium Bonds will be reduced to £25 in this year's Budget.

ERNIE, the equipment which generates the prize numbers, has drawn 419 million winning prizes, worth around £18.8 billion, since the first draw in June 1957. 

But there are still more than 1.5 million unclaimed prizes, worth over £60 million. 

For more info on how Premium Bonds work - and whether they're worth it - see our guide. 

What are Premium Bonds?

NS&I Premium Bonds are a savings account you can put money into (and take out when you want), where the interest paid is decided by a monthly prize draw. You buy £1 bonds and each has an equal chance of winning, so the more you buy, the more your chances improve.

• Minimum purchase amount: At the moment it's £100 (or £50 for monthly standing orders) - but the minimum is reducing to £25 for one-off and regular purchases by the end of March 2019.

• Maximum amount you can hold: £50,000.

• Age limit: Over 16 to buy them; under that age they may be held in the name of under-16s by parents or guardians. Grandparents or great-grandparents can buy then nominate the child's parent or guardian to hold them - this is due to be extended to all adults, but we don't yet know when.

The odds of any individual £1 Premium Bond number winning any prize are 24,500 to 1, and any winnings are paid out free of income tax or capital gains tax.

Who are this month's winners?

One of November's two Premium Bond millionaires is a woman from Somerset, who was originally bought two £1 bonds as a gift when she was a child. The bonds were bought in November and December 1956 - the first two months that Premium Bonds were on sale.

The woman topped up her Premium Bonds investment to the maximum of £50,000 this September, and won the jackpot in the next eligible draw. 

In total, over 3 million winning prizes were drawn, worth over £90 million.

The full breakdown of Premium Bond prizes awarded this month is as follows:

What does NS&I say?

Jill Waters, NS&I's retail director, said: "Gifting Premium Bonds is not only a nice gesture today, but it helps develop a savings habit for tomorrow. We will soon be making it even easier to save for children, by offering the opportunity for aunts, uncles, godparents and family friends to gift Premium Bonds to under 16s.

"The good news doesn’t stop there. By March 2019, the minimum investment for Premium Bonds purchases will be reduced from £100 to £25, making it even easier to enter the prize draw, and we will soon be launching a new app to help make saving easier."