15 May is the deadline for agri-environment scheme annual revenue claims to be submitted. ELS, HLS, and legacy forestry agreement holders have to submit a revenue claim to get paid. Claims made after 15 May will incur a reduced payment. Claims received after Monday 11 June 2018 will receive no payment.
On 8th May the claim deadline for Countryside Stewardship (CS) was extended to 15 June (see more information here). CS claims received after 10 July 2018 will receive no payment.
All agreement holders will be written to setting out the process and providing, where appropriate, paper claim forms. Some agreements require supporting evidence to be submitted with the claim form.
For Countryside Stewardship you can claim online here. Natural England has outlined the benefits of claiming online here.
For ELS and HLS claims there is additional guidance available here on how to complete the claim form. When you are recording rotational arable options in ELS or HLS then you need to check provide details for this cropping year (autumn 2017 to harvest 2018). Don’t include options for overwintered stubbles. You need to provide details of where you will locate the overwintered stubble options in autumn to winter 2018 to 2019. You can check here when to record your rotational options during the cropping year.
Information on where to send your claim can be found here.
What do I do if the land on my ES or CS claim form is incorrect due to Remapping or new Hedge Layer?
On the claim form you need to:
- CS agreement holders will need to state where the claim information is wrong and where the options are now located or where land is incorrect by completing Section 6: Changes to Your Claim of the Claim Form.
- ES agreement holders will need will need to state where the claim information is wrong and where the options are now located or where land is incorrect by completing Section 4 of the Claim Form.
The claim form is not a mechanism for correcting your maps or hedge information held by RPA. You need to follow the RPA’s guidance and processes for this, usually by submitting an RLE1. RPA have produced guidance on checking the hedge layer which articulates when it will be used to check agri-environment schemes.
Changes to your agreement
You must notify Natural England in writing before you make any changes to your agreement (see you agreement handbook). Completing your claim form does not replace this requirement.