People's Postcode Lottery

Sep 17, 2020 People’s Postcode Lottery manages 20 draws per month across multiple lotteries for good causes who receive a minimum of 32% of each ticket sale. To find out draw dates. People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charities and good causes. People play with their chosen postcodes for a chance to win cash prizes. A minimum of 32% from each subscription goes directly to charities and good causes in Britain and internationally. Players have raised more than £600million so far.

People’s Postcode Lottery is a not-for-commercial-gain organisation owned by Novamedia, the creators of the postcode lottery brand.

Novamedia was established in 1983 with the goal of contributing to a better world through the operation of charity lotteries, media and publishing activities. Its sole objective is to support charitable and social initiatives worldwide.

The first Postcode Lottery launched in the Netherlands in 1989. People’s Postcode Lottery launched in Britain in 2005 and has since been joined by lotteries in Sweden, Germany and Norway.

Novamedia and the Postcode Lotteries was ranked the world's third largest private charity donor in 2019/20 and the second biggest in Europe*.

With a belief that the world benefits from strong social organisations, our mission at People’s Postcode Lottery is to help raise funds for charities and good causes and increase awareness of their work.

People's Postcode Lottery

Going beyond grants, People's Postcode Lottery understands the importance and potential impact that unrestricted, flexible and long-term funding can bring.

Licensed by the Gambling Commission, People’s Postcode Lottery manages charity lotteries for 20 Postcode Trusts.

*World’s Top Private Charity Donors 2019/20 and Europe's Top Private Charity Donors 2019/20, City AM Giving Magazine 2020

In the United Kingdom, the postcode lottery is the unequal provision of services such as healthcare, education and insurance prices depending on the geographic area or postcode. Postcodes can directly affect the services an area can obtain, such as insurance prices. Despite having many non-postal uses, postcodes are only determined based on Royal Mail operations and bear little relation to local government boundaries. More broadly, there is an unequal provision of services around the country, especially in public services,[1] such as access to cancer drugs in the healthcare system[2] or quality of education.[3] These are more likely to be a result of local budgets and decision-making than actual postcodes.

Postcodes were devised solely for the purposes of sorting and directing mail and rarely coincide with political boundaries. However, over time they have become a geographical reference in their own right with postcodes and postcode groups becoming synonymous with certain towns and districts. Further to this, the postcode has been used by organisations for other applications including government statistics, marketing, calculation of car and household insurance premiums and credit referencing.

Changing postcodes[edit]

There are several groups, mostly on the fringes of major population centres, who are affected in one way or another by the associations of their postcode. There is a movement in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to change the first two characters of their postcodes from SL to WM for vanity, so as not to be associated with Slough.[4] A businessman in Ilford wishes to have the postcode district of IG1 changed to E19 as he claims customers do not realise his business is based in London.[5]

Some residents of West Heath in SE2 asked to have their postcodes changed to that of adjacent Bexleyheath, citing higher insurance premiums as reason to change.[6] Some residents of Kingston Vale in SW15 wish to have their postcodes changed to adjacent Kingston upon Thames for the same reasons[citation needed].

In all these cases Royal Mail has said that there is 'virtually no hope' of changing the postcode, referring to their policy of changing postcodes only to match changes in their operations.[7] Under this policy residents of the Wirral Peninsula had their postcodes changed from the L (Liverpool) to CH (Chester) group when a new sorting office was opened.[8]

Some postcode areas straddle England's borders with Wales and Scotland. Examples of such postcodes include CH4, SY10, NP16 and TD15. This has led to British Sky Broadcasting subscribers receiving the wrong BBC and ITV regions, and newly licensed radio amateurs being given incorrect call signs.

Extended use of postcodes[edit]

Postcomm says the following regarding the extended use of postcodes and the Postcode Address File (PAF):

People

Many organisations – including new postal operators, banks, insurance companies and others offering to deliver goods to your door — have a need for this information. It would be very time-consuming and costly for anyone to try and replicate the list, so Royal Mail licenses PAF data, for a fee, allowing others to use it. ... Although we have a role in ensuring that PAF is managed well, Postcomm does not intervene to resolve disputes involving individual postcodes. A postcode is a routing instruction, allowing a postal operator to sort and deliver mail accurately and efficiently. It is not necessarily a geographically accurate description of where a property is located.[9]

People

People's Postcode Lottery Winners

See also[edit]

References[edit]

People's Postcode Lottery Scam Letter Sample

  1. ^Butler, Patrick (2000-11-09). 'Q&A: Postcode lottery'. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  2. ^Devlin, Kate (2008-09-08). 'Healthcare postcode lottery means patients losing out on cancer treatments'. The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  3. ^Garner, Richard (2009-10-19). 'Postcode lottery still determines degree achievement'. The Independent. London. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  4. ^'England 'Snobs' want to slough off postcode'. BBC News. 2003-01-17. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  5. ^Scrivens, Louise (2005-04-05). 'England London The power of the postcode'. BBC News. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  6. ^'Cracking The Codes Not Easy (from This Is Local London)'. Thisislocallondon.co.uk. 2002-03-12. Archived from the original on 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  7. ^Scrivens, Louise (2005-04-05). 'UK England London The power of the postcode'. BBC News. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  8. ^'Postman Pat Gets L Of A Row Off His Chest — This Is Wirral'. Archive.thisiswirral.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  9. ^Postal Services Commission (March 2009). 'Royal Mail's Postcode Address File'(PDF). Postcomm. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2009-09-03. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
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