Some Shropshire residents have started the New Year with a smile after a number of residents won high-value prizes with this month’s Premium Bonds draw.
Two lucky Shropshire Bond holders won £100,000 each as ERNIE, the random-number generator, choose their bond numbers.
Another winner in the county scooped £50,000 with their Bond, which was held since 2014, and a fourth Bond number in the Shropshire area also landed a £25,000 prize.
More Shropshire winners
The money kept flowing to the Shropshire area this month with five winners each receiving £10,000 and eight people winning £5,000 each.
The high amount of high value winners this month could be down to the prize pool increasing. The Bank of England increased interest rates at the end of last year to 3.5%. NS&I, who run the Premium Bonds, announced in December that from January 2023 the annual prize fund rate would increase to 3.00% from 2.2%.
Prizes range from £25 to £1 million and are all tax-free with the odds of winning a prize being 24,000 to 1 for every £1 bond. Only details of high value winners are published so lots more residents would have won lower-value prizes to get the year off to a winning start!
ERNIE 5 generates the winning numbers
The numbers are generated by ERNIE 5, which is powered by quantum technology and uses light to produce enough random numbers for a monthly prize draw in just 12 minutes. It generates random numbers that are matched against eligible Bond numbers to determine the lucky winners. Every Bond number has a separate and equal chance of winning a prize.
Million pound winners
Those lucky enough to win the million pound top prizes each month get a visit from Agent Million who is tasked with delivering the winning news in person to the two monthly jackpot winners. Since the first Premium Bonds millionaire in 1994, over 400 new millionaires have been visited.
In January’s draw, one million-pound winner was from Wiltshire, who held the maximum amount of £50,000 in bonds with the second winner from South Yorkshire holding £4,625 worth of Bonds.
Shropshire Live is regulated by 
