‘NS&I can’t find my 1982 bonds – they could be worth a fortune’

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My husband and I decided to downsize from our family home a few years ago, and it was an almighty upheaval. Years later we are still finding things in funny places.

The other day I was going through the drawers of an old dressing table and found some certificates for investments that were made more than 40 years ago in 1982, when our now middle-aged son was a five-month-old baby.

There were a total of three NS&I index-linked bonds worth £50, £500 and £1,000, and alongside them was a “holder’s card”, showing that they had been registered. In truth I had completely forgotten that we had taken these out.

We looked on the internet and tried to phone the NS&I customer helpline for help with identifying the investments and finding out how much they are worth. However, no one we spoke to was able to tell us anything about them, apart from that they probably no longer exist.

When we gave the numbers of the investments we were told they could not be found. When we asked how far back NS&I’s system went, the answer was something mysterious like: “as far as we need to go”. 

It was very unhelpful and we were deeply unimpressed with this response. I appreciate that these investments were made 42 years ago, which is a long time, but £1,550 back then was quite a lot of money. Our bonds should have accrued a fair bit of interest which we, of course, should like to have. Can you help?

– LD, via email

You sent me photographs of the certificates in question which all contained date stamps and holder’s reference numbers.

The accompanying holder’s card also bore the matching reference number and verification stamp, so you could be sure they corresponded.

The bonds were “index linked”, meaning they would have been pegged to the Retail Price Index. RPI measures inflation in the UK by tracking a basket of goods which changes slightly each year. 

Back in January 1982 the RPI index was at 78.73, but by January 2024 it had climbed to 378.0, meaning your investment should now be worth significantly more than its initial value.

Happily, within a few days of me contacting NS&I on your behalf, there was good news: it had found your investment. This meant you could bypass the long and drawn-out process of going via its investment tracing service, which is what it had recommended you do, although it hadn’t made clear this could not be done by phone.

NS&I said it wrote to you when each of your Index-Linked Savings Certificates matured. It said you would have had 30 days to respond to NS&I with your instructions, which it never received. As NS&I heard nothing from you, the funds were transferred to a “residual account” where they would be held until you claimed them.

It said the value of the £50 bond was now £204.83, the £500 was now worth £2,048.14, and the £1,000 one was now valued at £4,096.24. 

Considering you had completely forgotten about these bonds until you opened your dresser draw, you were delighted when I told you about your £6,349 windfall. You said you fancied buying a new car with the money, as your current one is on the brink.

Although you were happy, I felt slightly disappointed as I had anticipated that the bonds might now be worth more than £6,349. But the lower figure seemed to be explained by them ending up in an NS&I residual account, or so I assumed.

I wanted to understand how the values had been calculated so I asked NS&I: on what date did the bonds mature? And what was the interest rate in the residual account? 

NS&I said it would find out the information and come back to me, which I expected to be quick, as it would have already had it to hand, having already used it to calculate the value of your investments.

However, the information didn’t come. I was shocked to be told that it would not be able to obtain the details of when the bonds matured or the maturity letters were sent out, “due to the age of the certificates and being pre-digital records”. The same was the case for pre-2008 residual account interest rates, I was told.

When I spoke to NS&I’s press office I was baffled to discover the information I had requested did not exist at all. The maturity dates were not known, and nor was the interest rate on the residual account.

So how on earth had NS&I calculated the value of your investments then, I asked? Had the figures simply been plucked out of thin air?

I told NS&I it had better come up with an answer, and fast, as its credibility as a reliable keeper of your money was falling through the floor.  

Finally it pulled its finger out and came back with a full explanation for the misinformation within a few hours. As it turns out, your bonds never matured at all, as no date had been set. Back in the 1980s bond certificates were issued on a “perpetual” basis, meaning they never expired. 

This meant that in fact no letter was ever sent and your bonds were never moved into the residual account. So the letter you had been sent appeared to be a complete work of fiction.

It also transpired that the certificate values previously quoted in NS&I’s official letter to you, which also thanked you for writing to me, were correct but only to 2013. 

This was when certificates were transferred to a new digital system and remained in a bulk account continuing to accrue interest. These can then be converted into an individual digital account on NS&I’s systems once the owner of a certificate has been identified.

NS&I blamed “human error” for the mix-up, which wrongly wiped a decade’s worth of investment returns from your bonds. It has confirmed that the true combined value of your bonds is actually £2,574.35 higher than it first declared, at £8,923.35.

An NS&I spokesman said: “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience Mrs D experienced and the inconsistent information she has since been given when inquiring about her Index-Linked Savings Certificates that she purchased in the 1980s. 

“We have located her funds, including interest earned, and are now in contact with her so that she can decide whether to keep her money in the Savings Certificates or withdraw. We will also be making an additional compensation payment which we will be agreeing with her.”

This is a mortifying error by the Government’s savings arm which appears to have arisen because the member(s) of staff dealing with your complaint did not understand how the old-style paper certificates worked. 

There is absolutely no excuse for this and I’d think serious questions over standards in its complaints team will now be raised internally.

When I filled you in about your extra windfall and the reasons behind it, you were as shocked as I was. You must now decide whether to leave the bonds tracking the index (which has now changed to CPI), or cash them in – however there is no rush. 

You are at a recorder festival over the weekend where you will play in a show. When you return, NS&I would like to offer you some extra compensation to say sorry for its incompetence, although I’m not sure this will do much to repair your trust at this stage.