As we approach the Basic Payment Scheme payment window, NFU senior adviser, Richard Wordsworth, explains when farmers should expect to see money hit their banks accounts.
He writes:
Timing of payments
Frustratingly, the RPA has been vague when we have asked them when farmers will receive their payments. They told me they will ‘make full payments on BPS claims from December and as early as possible in the payment window, with the majority in December and the vast majority by the end of January’.
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The NFU is constantly monitoring the situation and challenging the RPA’s plans and progress.
For example at NFU Council last week, members challenged RPA CEO Mark Grimshaw as he updated us on developments.
A group of NFU Council members also isited the RPA Reading offices in September to see what sits behind the headlines and presentations. Key areas of concern and focus for us are issues such as data capture – entering all those handwritten entries from the BP5 form back onto the core IT system, at the last count 93% of those claims have passed this process.
What I can say now is that the levels of payments are likely to be lower for 2015 compared to 2014 (if all things are equal) as the 2015 BPS exchange rate is 5.92% lower than under SPS 2014.
Another concern is the integration of claim data supplied on and off the BP5. An example of this would be making sure there are no dual claims on any given piece of land. Added to this is blending in changes due to transfers of land and entitlements expressed on the RLE1 form. These critical elements need to be carried out through a new IT system designed to deal with BPS claims. There is a lot to do and time ticks by, the months of October and November are key to delivery of BPS payments thereafter. The key for us all is having certainty of when you get paid and then what you are going to get paid.
What is going to be the value of entitlements and greening payments for 2015?
We will not know the final figures until November but there are a number of factors that will impact on progress. I will explain these in a future blog.
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See also: How to minimise the risk of a BPS delay