Pensioner wins Ernie's £1m jackpot

A PENSIONER living in Warwickshire has scooped the £1m Premium Bonds jackpot for March. The winner, who is a woman, holds £2,575 worth of bonds. Her top-prize bond was bought in 1994.

This is Warwickshire's second £1m jackpot winner since the £1m top prize was introduced in 1994. Throughout the county, 230,000 people own bonds worth £289m.

March's draw is the biggest ever, with Ernie giving away more than am prizes worth more than £69m, including five prizes of £100,000.

The popularity of Premium Bonds has grown dramatically over the past five years as the amount invested has doubled to £25bn. Today's winner is unusual, because recent winners have frequently been holders of the maximum £30,000 worth of bonds and the winning number has usually been assigned to a bond bought comparatively recently.

National Savings and Investments says savers with the maximum holding can expect to win 15 prizes a year, with average luck.