The Rural Payments Agency has been forced to revert to using paper forms to process Basic Payment Scheme applications this year, due to an IT issue.

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• RLE1, which allows claimants to transfer land and entitlements and make changes to their land;
• BP5, the BPS claim form.

From Friday (20th March), the Agency will begin to email all farmers and agents who have already registered on the Rural Payments website to provide further detail on completing and submitting claims.

The new ways farmers can complete their claims are:

• Farm businesses with little change to their land will be fast-tracked by the RPA. They will receive an email in April that summarises the land and entitlement information already held, together with simple instructions on completing their claim by email. The RPA has identified approximately 39,000 farmers in this category.
• Farm businesses that need to map new features can use blank existing forms to prepare their claims, before they are sent a pre-populated form in April. They can submit their claim by post or through an RPA drop-in centre.

RPA assured that any farmer who has not received an up-to-date map of their land from the RPA in the last six months will be sent one during April and that all agents will have received maps of their clients’ land from the RPA by the end of next week.

Mark Grimshaw acknowledged that Thursday’s announcement amounts to stepping back a year. The RPA Chief Executive added that the Agency welcomes EU Agriculture Commissioner Hogan’s announcement that the BPS deadline will be pushed back a month to 15th June.

Farmers and agents can get help from RPA’s 50 drop-in centres around the country, or by calling the helpline on 03000 200 301. RPA mobile units will also be providing help to more isolated farmers.

Reactions

Commenting on the debacle, NFU president Meurig Raymond said farmers are “justifiably frustrated, angry and anxious about the developing situation and lack of functionality and communication.” The NFU President added, “We have been let down time and time again.  We know that some farmers have already spent hundreds of pounds on agents’ fees and this is an unacceptable situation and the failure of the mapping capability of the systems has been a particular bugbear to our members.”

Other farm leaders, including George Dunn of the Tennant Farmers’ Association have criticised Defra for pushing RPA towards ‘Digital by Default’ but defended Grimshaw.

Labour’s shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle was scornful of the government, pointing out that its £150m IT system now needs to be backed up by paper forms, meaning more work for RPA staff who will have to input the data submitted.

Ms Eagle said, “It’s good that the Government has finally accepted Labour’s call for a paper-based contingency but why has it taken them so long? We’ve known for weeks about the problems with the IT system while Ministers were burying their heads in the sand and pretending everything was fine.

“They’ve finally admitted to their incompetence at the last minute and caused chaos and confusion for hardworking farmers. The Government must now clearly explain what they’re doing to fix the IT system problems in the shortest time possible.”