Premium Bonds are treated differently from an ordinary savings account. There is no interest and no fixed maturity date — instead, each £1 Bond is a separate entry into NS&I's monthly prize draw, and that entry does not stop the moment the holder dies.
12 months in the draw
Premium Bonds remain eligible for the monthly prize draw for 12 months after the date of death, still held in the deceased's name — NS&I's own bereavement guidance confirms this. The clock starts from the date of death, not the date NS&I is told.
Cashed in, not transferred
Premium Bonds cannot be moved into a beneficiary's own name — they must be repaid to the estate. A beneficiary who wants their own Premium Bonds has to buy them separately, up to the £50,000 per-person holding limit.
Prizes paid by warrant
Once NS&I has been told, any prize already won is paid by warrant — like a cheque — to the person entitled once the claim completes. Prizes from later draws follow the same way, one at a time, and cannot be paid electronically or held back to the end.
The executor chooses the timing
The executor can leave the Bonds in the draw for the full 12 months, or cash them in earlier if the estate needs the money sooner. Cashing in early stops eligibility from the month after the claim, so there is no advantage in cashing in the moment probate is granted.
The same bereavement process covers every NS&I product, but the outcome is not the same for all of them. A small group of NS&I holdings can be transferred directly into a new owner's name without being cashed in first — Premium Bonds are not among them.
NS&I is not automatically told when someone dies. Registering the death and using Tell Us Once notifies most government departments and some banks — as with a bank account — but NS&I sits outside that service and has to be contacted separately, with its own much lower release threshold.
Notify NS&I directly
Contact NS&I on 08085 007 007, through its online bereavement claim form, or by post using the paper NS&I 904 form sent to NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB. Its current quoted response time is eight weeks once every document it needs has arrived.
Not covered by Tell Us Once
NS&I does not appear on the Tell Us Once list. Registering the death alone will not start this claim — someone must get in touch with NS&I directly, and the sooner that happens the sooner the eight-week clock starts.
What NS&I will ask for
The deceased's full name, address, date of birth and date of death; the claimant's own details as executor, administrator or next of kin; any known NS&I account details; and — above the threshold below — a Grant of Representation.
The £5,000 threshold
NS&I may ask for a Grant of Representation if the customer's total NS&I savings are £5,000 or over — and reserves the right to ask for one at any value. That is far below many banks, several of which release up to £50,000 without a grant (practice varies by bank), so a modest, NS&I-only estate can sometimes be settled without probate at all.
Premium Bonds and other NS&I holdings still count towards the value of the estate, whatever the claim threshold. The £5,000 figure above only governs whether NS&I needs to see a grant before paying out — it has nothing to do with whether the holding is reportable for Inheritance Tax, which it always is.
National Savings and Investments, including Premium Bonds, are declared to HMRC on form IHT406 — filed alongside the main IHT400 return for any estate that does not qualify as an excepted estate. See the IHT406 walkthrough and the IHT400 form guide for how the two fit together.
Interest-bearing NS&I accounts also keep earning until the account is actually closed, not until the date of death — which can create a separate estate income tax point if the administration runs on past the tax year in which the person died.
Reported on IHT406
Premium Bonds and every other NS&I product held at death are listed on IHT406, one of the schedules that accompanies IHT400 for estates over the excepted-estate limits.
Nothing here goes missing
NS&I's own guidance says an unclaimed prize is never lost — it is held until someone gets in touch, with no time limit on making the claim. A Premium Bond bought decades ago and never claimed is still worth pursuing today.
The complete executor toolkit — including every institution's own bereavement process
Includes the notification letter for NS&I and every bank, building society and pension provider you name, a full asset-tracing checklist, and a timed action plan from day one through month twelve.
See what's included→NS&I runs its own separate, lower threshold
A modest, NS&I-only estate can clear £5,000 without a grant
The HMRC schedule Premium Bonds are declared on
The main return IHT406 is filed alongside
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