The Rural Payments Agency has met its second government target of paying out 95 per cent of the total value and total number of claimants under the Single Farm Payment Scheme, the agency announced on Tuesday (6th March).

The Agency announced it had achieved its target set by the RPA oversight board three weeks ahead of schedule and in so doing has met the EU benchmark of making 95 per cent of payments before the end of June.

On Tuesday, the RPA had paid out 95.4 per cent of the total payments value to 96 per cent of eligible claimants. £1.651 billion has been paid out so far to over 100,000 farmers, although there remain a number of farmers, estimated to be in the region of 3,500, who are still awaiting payment.

Nevertheless, Tuesday’s announcement shows the RPA has met both deadlines set for it by the oversight board, the first of which was to pay 86 per cent of claimants and 81 per cent of the estimated value of total payments for SPS by 31st December 2011, which it succeeded in doing two weeks ahead of schedule.

RPA chief executive Mark Grimshaw said, “Thanks to the hard work of our people and their determination to provide the best customer service, we have made this volume of payments significantly earlier than has been achieved in any previous year while maintaining our focus on accuracy.

“We will be in touch with those claimants who look likely to remain unpaid at the end of March to explain the status on their claim, including any corrective work and payment adjustments related to previous scheme years.”

Earlier in the week, a BBC documentary caused waves within the farming community over its coverage of the single payments scheme. The BBC’s long running Panorama programme exposed some of the more unjust aspects of the SPS including showing how payments discriminate against young farmers and benefit large-scale farmers and landowners, some of whom are not actively producing food. 

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