NS&I has reported today that the first Premium Bonds jackpot winners of 2026 are from Suffolk and Berkshire
Two Premium Bonds holders from Suffolk and Berkshire are celebrating a life-changing start to 2026 after each winning a £1 million Premium Bonds jackpot.
According to NS&I, the first Premium Bonds £1 million winning Bond number this month is 570QM451332 and is held by someone from Suffolk. They purchased the winning Bond less than two years ago in February 2024 and hold £50,000. They are the 11th jackpot winner from Suffolk.
The second Premium Bonds £1 million jackpot Bond number is 377PG290829 held by someone in Berkshire. They’ve held £50,000 since December 2019. They are the fifth person to win the £1 million jackpot in Berkshire.
Andrew Westhead, NS&I Retail Director, said: “We’re delighted to kick off 2026 by creating our first Premium Bonds millionaires of the year in Suffolk and Berkshire.
“The jackpot winners aren’t the only ones celebrating. This month, ERNIE drew more than six million tax-free prizes worth over £406 million, bringing a happy new year to savers across the country.
“Premium Bonds holders can check if they’ve won a prize from Saturday, 3 January on our quick and easy NS&I prize checker app.”
January 2026 prize draw breakdown
In the January draw £406,932,450 will be paid to Premium Bonds prize draw winners totalling 6,165,643 tax-free prizes. This month there were 135,644,148,620 £1 Bonds eligible for the draw. This brings the grand total of prizes since the first draw in June 1957 to 809 million and the total value to over £39.5 billion.
| Value of prize | Number of prizes |
| £1,000,000 | 2 |
| £100,000 | 77 |
| £50,000 | 156 |
| £25,000 | 309 |
| £10,000 | 773 |
| £5,000 | 1,548 |
| £1,000 | 16,276 |
| £500 | 48,828 |
| £100 | 1,731,056 |
| £50 | 1,731,056 |
| £25 | 2,635,562 |
| Total value of prizes | Total number of prizes |
| £406,932,450 | 6,165,674 |
What are Premium Bonds?
Since they originally went on sale in November 1956, Premium Bonds have offered savers an accessible way to invest with the chance to win tax-free prizes. The first prize draw by ERNIE was then held in June 1957.
Individuals can hold up to £50,000 in Premium Bonds, including those aged under 16. Premium Bonds offer the security of being backed by HM Treasury alongside the excitement of potentially winning tax-free prizes.
Newly purchased Premium Bonds need to be held for one full calendar month after purchase before being eligible for the prize draw.
Prizes are funded based upon a prize fund rate applied across the total of all eligible Premium Bonds held.
Each £1 Bond purchased is entered into a monthly prize draw, where prizes range from £25 to £1 million, making it a different and engaging way to save. The jackpot prize was increased to £1 million from the April 1994 draw. There are now two £1 million prizes each month.
Checking prizes
The Bond numbers for the two £1 million jackpot prize winners are announced on the first working day of each month having been contacted directly by Agent Million. Bond holders can check if they have won prizes ranging from £25 to £100,000 the day after the first working day of each month by using the Premium Bonds prize checker app, visiting the NS&I website, or by asking Alexa. For January 2026, this is Saturday, 3 January.
To check prizes on the NS&I website Bond holders will need their Premium Bonds holder’s number. For those using the Premium Bonds app they can use their holder’s number, or their NS&I number.
Premium Bonds prizes notifications and unclaimed prizes
Premium Bonds prize winners will receive notifications of their winnings each month via their chosen method such as email or text if they have registered their contact details.
There are instances where customers relocate or change contact or bank details and forget to update NS&I with the new details which can lead to unclaimed prizes. Currently there are 2,695,399 unclaimed prizes worth £112,985,200 waiting to be claimed by Bond holders. Over 99% of prizes have been paid to winners since the draw began in 1957.
The best way to avoid prizes going unclaimed is to have them paid directly into the holder’s bank account or automatically reinvested into Premium Bonds up to the £50,000 holding limit. Prizes automatically reinvested are immediately eligible for the next draw. These payment methods now account for nine in ten prizes being paid in these ways.
Customers who think they may have an unclaimed prize (prizes over 18 months old) can check by entering their holder’s number into NS&I’s online prize checker or the prize checker app.
In Suffolk, there are currently around 27,508 unclaimed prizes worth £1,128,975 dating back to 1967. The largest unclaimed prizes in Suffolk are worth £10,000 and were won in the January 2023 and October 2023 draws. Suffolk has prizes worth £5,000 dating back to April 2023 waiting to be claimed.
There is a £50,000 prize from February 2020 yet to be claimed in Berkshire. Other high value prizes include five £5,000 prizes from between January 2012 and December 2023.