More than 2m people in the East of England own premium bonds

National Savings and Investments said individual prizes worth up to �5,000 were unclaimed because people forgot to change their address details.

Essex tops the table for the region's unclaimed prizes at �604,100, followed by Herts at �402,325, but across the whole region the total is �1.98m.

Some of the wins date back nearly 50 years but can still be claimed.

National Savings' Elen Thomas said: "We've been doing research into why were losing touch with these winners.

Monthly number selection

"A staggering one in four people move house and don't let their financial providers know their new address details. So they're literally walking away from their money.

"We're really keen to get these people back in touch with their money because it could mean a fantastic holiday help with a house deposit."

More than two million people in the region own Premium Bonds worth more than �3bn. More than 33,000 prizes are unclaimed.

Last year bond holders in the east were traced to be given �100,000 in unclaimed prizes.

Each month winning numbers are selected by Ernie, Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment.