Merry Christmas, you've won the Premium Bonds - 124 times Gerald Sargent, 80, of Swadlincote, Derbyshire, had not any winnings for a decade when he phoned National Savings and Investments. It apologised for the 10-year delay in delivering his winnings of thousands of pounds and gave him an additional £2,000 to cover lost interest. Savers are able to claim their winnings at any time - and are encouraged to do so by NS&I, the Government savings arm, which launched a nationwide advertising campaign earlier this year to hunt for winners. The body has also introduced practices to reduce the chances of prizes lying unclaimed. For instance, holders can manage their bonds online and opt to have any prizes paid directly into their bank accounts, with notification by email. Mr Sargent said the discovery of so many winnings waiting at NS&I should be a call to others to act. He told the Burton Mail: "After having my leg pulled by my family about not winning for so long, I rang NS&I and asked if they had lost me in the system and if so, had I won anything. They checked and initially found I had won 10 times this year but I hadn't received any winnings. Two hours later I got a call from the manager saying I had won more than 120 times. I cannot get back the last 10 years of my life. I am now 80 and have had to shut down most of my hobbies. I just want to urge people to check with these people and see if they have won as it could be a nice Christmas. Premium Bonds elicit fascination and frustration in equal measure among savers. Prizes are picked each month at random, and while the average return on your investments is around 1.3pc a year, there are tales of people who have invested the maximum £30,000 only to experience awful luck. Yet the winner of September's monthly £1m Premium Bond prize draw held just £2,000-worth of bonds - only the 23rd occasion a sum this small had won the maximum. Can premium bonds beat low rate savings?