February 2024 sees a brand new competition launching on GMB And Lorraine, featuring a cash prize worth £84,000 for a lucky winner.

On Good Morning Britain, Andi Peters is presenting it as a new format for the show, which may be true for a competition that’s only running across GMB and Lorraine, but it’s actually not the first time a winner could choose to win a monthly cash prize or a single lump sum.

Back in September and October 2021, ITV ran a competition with what had the potential to be their biggest ever prize, with a total payout potentially totalling £1.2million.

The prize draw back then was marketed to viewers as ‘The Big Decision’ and involved a winner choosing whether to take a lump sum of £1million, or £10,000 a month for 10 years, a total of 120 £10,000 payments, or £1,200,000 in total.

The winner ultimately opted to take the million in one go, so didn’t actually beat the previous million pound winner a couple of years earlier.

This time around, the winner can choose to take £7,000 a month for a year (that’s 12 monthly instalments  of £7,000) or a single £84,000 lump sum. As both totals are the same, it would seem a little odd for anyone to take a monthly option, but who knows what the winner will choose to do?

Going back to The Big Decision in 2021, when the winner faced a choice of £10,000 a month for 10 years or a million pound lump, the decision was more nuanced.

Financial advisers interviewed on the competition segments were quick to point out how the interest would work on investing a million pound lump – paying off a mortgage would quickly produce savings on interest without incurring tax, but most savings investments would involve paying tax on interest.

On the other hand, taking the big lump might allow you to start enjoying your incredible windfall if you were the lucky winner, so the opportunity of the big lump would need to be considered against the extra £200,000 the winner could get over a decade of drip feeding the prize.

With the current prize in February 2024 though, the total prize is the same whichever option you take, so if I was to win, it would be the lump sum every time!