The NFU continues to raise these concerns along with other issues with the RPA on a weekly basis. We are in regular contact with the RPA ensuring that our members' voices are heard and acted upon.
Current Situation …
With increased pressure on the RPA call centre at this time, we would strongly suggest that members look at the information available on www.gov.uk and NFUonline (briefing on the claim statement here) before making contact about possible incorrect payments.
The RPA has a helpful document which shows how the payment was calculated, available here.
Despite NFU lobbying, the claim statement does not show a field-by-field breakdown of what makes up the BPS area determined by the RPA, which the payment is based on.
It is still important to check the Claim Statement against your 2015 claim paperwork, as well as other associated claim correspondence, along with looking at the scheme guidance to see if there are any issues.
Should you not be expecting a paper 2016 claim form this year, you can print off a PDF of your land data before starting to edit it. This will give you a record of the RPA’s suggested entries of your 2015 field data. In order to do this, please refer to page 4 of the ‘How to claim BPS Online in 2016’ guidance, which tells you how to create an ‘application summary’ that is your land data.
How to deal with your concern...
If you believe there is a problem with your payment please contact the RPA in writing/email with as much detail as possible. For example, a copy of the 2016 field data information showing any discrepancies against the 2015 entries where you believe the RPA has made an error.
Please retain a copy of what you have sent for future reference. It may take some time for issues to be resolved.
BPS 2016 claim
- In respect to the completion of the 2016 BPS form, and even if you haven’t received your 2015 payment, you can still submit your 2016 application.
- Remember that the deadline is 16 May this year, and isn’t going to be extended as it was in 2015 as far as we are aware. Therefore it’s important that you submit your application in plenty of time and refer to the guidance issued by the RPA when completing your 2016 claim.
- Do not assume the 2015 claim was completed correctly and also watch out for the change in application rules for 2016. Completing the 2016 claim as requested by the RPA will help to avoid a problem from 2015 compounding into BPS 2016. For example if the RPA has not processed an entitlement transfer prior to 2015 claim payment and now need to correct it, then having the land that will be used to activate those entitlements on the 2016 application form will help to protect your position in terms of being able to activate those entitlements in 2016.
- There is further payment information on the way from the RPA that will help you with your payment; this includes the issuing of the 2015 Entitlement Statement, which should start soon. As a reminder this document shows the position effective at 15 June 2015 (2015 BPS deadline), taking into account any national reserve awards, transfers in / out to that point and any expired entitlements.
How we continue to help our members…
The NFU is lobbying the RPA to release information from 2015 land-based inspections where there are discrepancies between what was claimed and found on the ground as soon as possible, to help with the completion of the 2016 claim and to help with understanding the 2015 payment.
The NFU is also continuing to push the RPA to release to those claiming BPS on common land the calculation of notional area to help understand the basis of the payment issued for 2015.