1. Postcode Lottery Odds - Page 2 — MoneySavingExpert Forum
2. Which Lottery Has The Best Odds? — MoneySavingExpert Forum
3. Postcode Lottery Account
4. Beware - People's Postcode Lottery! — MoneySavingExpert Forum

As a random example, the Texas Lottery Commission puts the odds of winning any prize in its Triple 777 scratch-off game at about 1 in 5. But the approximate odds of winning serious money are much lower: 1 in 4,000 for the $100 second prize and 1 in 600,000 for the $1,000 grand prize. Postcode lottery emailed postcode lottery to say this draw should be made public and that I had noticed certain areas winning quite often, they asked for my postcode to check what winning have been in my area, which came back as low, then low and behold Wolverhampton became a.

People with the most complex medical needs continue to contend with a postcode lottery in having their care costs outside of hospital paid for by the NHS, according to new Which? analysis.

NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is for anyone aged over 18 years who is assessed by the NHS as having a ‘primary health need’, where health care is considered to be that person’s primary care need – and it isn’t means-tested. It’s most often used to cover the full cost of someone’s care home fees.

But the chances of the most vulnerable patients receiving this largely depends on where they live, according to the latest NHS England Statistics.

For the most extreme comparison, just 13 patients per 50,000 in Berkshire West received it, while 209 had it in Salford. That’s around 16 times as many people.

NHS Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) – what it is, whether you’re eligible, how to apply, and more.

Best and worst NHS areas for CHC funding

See below for the best and worst Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) on continuing healthcare across England.

If you or someone you know has been denied CHC funding but you don’t agree with the decision, consult our advice on how to complain about an NHS assessment.

A story of stagnation

The picture for the last quarter of 2018/19 shows little improvement on the same statistics collected at the end of 2017/18.

This year, across England, an average of 59 patients per 50,000 were funded, compared to 58 last year.

Interestingly, more people are receiving short-term fast-track CHC funding because of urgent needs, such as a terminal illness. However, more than 10,000 fewer people receive longer-term care funding than five years ago.

The health system think-tank The King’s Fund has reported on the reasons for this decline. It says that NHS England told it that, while eligibility criteria haven’t changed, reduced numbers are partly due to more assessments taking place at home rather than in hospital.

Huge difference in waits for decision

The national framework states that people should not wait more than 28 days for a decision to be made about whether they’re eligible for continuing care funding. However, Which? analysis reveals a persistently huge variation in how long referrals are taking.

100% of people in 11 CCGs had a decision within 28 days, including St Helens, Sunderland, Doncaster, Hull, Luton, Southampton, Ashford, and Richmond.

On the other end of the spectrum, 0% had a decision within 28 days in Ashford. Other low-performing CCGs here include Portsmouth (9%), and Herefordshire (10%).

Head to our article on NHS Continuing Healthcare for what should happen if you are kept waiting longer than 28 days.

If you’re looking into care options but you’re concerned about costs, take a look at our advice on financing care.

You can now save £10,000 more in Premium Bonds after the limit was increased to £50,000. But what are the odds of winning and how do they compare to the likes of the National Lottery and the Health Lottery?

Why Premium Bonds are so popular

Premium Bonds are the nation’s most popular savings product with 21 million of us depositing a total of £53 billion. Of that number 250,000 have invested up to the previous limit of £40,000 and many of those people will doubtless be investing more now.

Postcode Lottery Odds - Page 2 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

But why do we love Premium Bonds so much? There are two reasons.

Firstly, they are offered by National Savings & Investments (NS&I), the government’s bank. This means that all deposits are guaranteed by the Treasury so there is no risk of you losing your money and you can withdraw it at any time.

But the bigger reason so many of us choose to pour our savings into Premium Bonds is the prize fund. Each bond is entered into a monthly draw for a prize of up to £1 million.

Given the fact Premium Bonds have been around since 1956 that means there are a lot of winners out there.

Premium Bonds odds

Which Lottery Has The Best Odds? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

So what are your odds of winning with Premium Bonds?

NS&I will tell you that you stand a one in 26,000 chance of winning a prize for each £1 bond you own.

But those odds are for winning any Premium Bond prize, not just the million.

If you look at winning one of the two million pound Premium Bond jackpots the odds lengthen massively to an astonishing one in 27 billion. To put that in context you are far more likely to be killed by a vending machine – the odds for that are one in 112 million.

How the odds compare to lotteries

The main National Lottery Lotto draw now has odds of 45 million to one for winning the jackpot. If you want to win more Euromillions offers bigger jackpots but far longer odds at 116.5 million to one, due to the fact the whole of Europe can take part.

If you want shorter odds go for the smaller prizes. The National Lottery’s Thunderball game has a jackpot of £500,000 and your odds of winning are eight million to one. Making it eight times less likely than you being killed by falling off a ladder this year.

Play the Health Lottery and you have a one in two million chance of taking home the £100,000 jackpot. That means you are more likely to win – so long as you buy a ticket – than be killed by lightning. The odds of death by lightning in the UK are one in three million.

Postcode Lottery Account

So your chances of winning any big prize draw are pretty slim whether it’s the Euromillions or Premium Bonds. But just because the odds are long doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

Beware - People's Postcode Lottery! — MoneySavingExpert Forum

The odds of the Bulgarian lottery drawing the same numbers on two consecutive weeks are around 4.2 million to one, but it happened in 2009.