A GRANDAD who won an £80,000 lotto prize is desperate to go back on benefits.
Daniel Millar from Motherwell, Scotland, scooped the windfall but said he’s worse off than he was before, after managing to blow the whole sum in just weeks.
A now-skint Daniel, who has long-term health problems, failed to tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about the cash.
He later had his benefits stopped and now no longer qualifies for income support, housing benefit and council tax reduction despite now being penniless.
The pensioner bagged the windfall in September 2017 and said it was all gone by the November.
He is now desperate to be able to get his benefits back.
Daniel said: “I didn’t know I had to tell the Department for Work and Pensions, so I spent it all by giving it to my two sons and my daughter, paid two family holidays, did up my house and bought clothes for me and my wife.
“The money was all spent by November.
“In December, I got a letter from the DWP saying I had to go to an appointment.
“They then told me I had been reported by the tax office for having £80,000 in my bank.
“That was true in September but not when I went for the interview. I was £7 overdrawn.
“Now they have stopped my benefit. The only income I have is my personal independence payment of £350 per month and a pension of £1.08 per week.
“I have to pay full rent and council tax so we have little left to live on. My wife, who is my carer, gets £62 a week.
“She has to put that aside to pay other bills like gas, electric and phone.”
Wife Bridget added: “The DWP have said we aren’t entitled to any money. They say that we have deprived ourselves of capital and don’t qualify for the benefits.
“On the paperwork, they ask about a change of circumstances but they do not specify what that means.
“We just don’t know what we will do.”
Victims of the Lottery ‘curse’
MANY of us dream of winning big on the lottery but what about if you actually do? Surely it’s all flash cars and glam photoshoots, and maybe the odd film premiere? That wasn’t the case for this bunch, who – despite scooping millions of pounds – found themselves down in the dumps.
Cocaine King
The self-styled King Of Chavs Michael Carroll was wearing an electronic ankle tag when he scooped £9.7 million on the National Lottery in 2002.
He was aged 19 at the time and splurged his fortune on a six-bedroom mansion in Norfolk, which he kitted out with a swimming pool and car racing track.
Michael’s drug addiction saw him spending £2k a day on cocaine and eventually left him penniless.
He previously said: “The dealer who introduced me to crack has more of my lotto money than I do.”
Michael’s wife Sandra left him just a month after their wedding in 2003 after being appalled by his incessant partying. She also accused him of cheating on her with sex workers, walking away with £1.4million in a settlement.
He suffered a stint in jail for failing to comply with a drug treatment order and by February 2010 was declared bankrupt and claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance.
Michael was reportedly found working for £10 an hour chopping wood and delivering coal in 2019 after he lost his entire fortune.
Surgery Queen
Jane Park was the youngest ever Brit to win the EuroMillions when she scooped the £1 million jackpot aged 17 in 2013.
At the time of her win, she was an admin temp earning £8-an-hour, and was living in a two-bedroom Edinburgh council flat she shared with her mum Linda.
But things took a turn for the worse when she felt “empty” after her win and splurged £4.5k on a boob job 34B to 36FF and another few thousand on a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) in Turkey.
Jane was left fearing for her life after having a severe reaction to the anaesthetic and contracting sepsis back in 2017.
Two years later, she launched her OnlyFans to flog topless pictures of herself, followed by more plastic surgery to get her “dream body” with liposuction and a corrective BBL.
Now 28 and wiser, she believes winning the lottery cursed her life and she wishes it never happened.
Hilariously, she refers to herself as the ‘B&M Molly-Mae’.
Love and Loss
Gillian Bayford’s eight-year marriage was destroyed when she and ex-husband Adrian scooped £148 million on the EuroMillions in 2012.
Their lives changed overnight and put so much strain on their relationship, it totally broke down 15 months after their win.
Both Gillian, 50, and Adrian blamed the stress from their mind-boggling win as the root cause of their divorce.
In the decade following their divorce, Gillian became a mum at 48 years old with another man, purchased a £1.2 million mansion and started a property business.
“As far as [my daughter] is concerned I’m not a lottery winner, I’m just mum,” Gillian told The Sun. “Some things are easier because of the money but it doesn’t really change anything.
“You still have to change a nappy or deal with her being sick on you regardless of how much you’re worth.”