The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has announced it will begin making BPS payments to farmers from 1st December.

RPA officials said the Agency will meet its targets for paying more than half of all claimants in the first BPS scheme year by the end of 2015 and almost all by the end of January 2016. Around 30,000 farmers (just over a third of all claimants) are set to receive their 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payments on Tuesday (1st December).

On Friday. Natural England also confirmed that over three quarters (79%) of Environmental Stewardship advance payments worth over £114 million have been made, with all advance payments expected to be delivered before Christmas.

Commenting on the RPA’s announcement on Friday, Defra Secretary Liz Truss said, “Volatile markets had made 2015 a difficult year for many of our farmers and both my and the RPA’s continued priority is to make sure the remaining payments are made as quickly as possible during the payment window.” Truss acknowledged that, “The added complexities and burdens of the new Common Agricultural Policy have proved challenging for everyone.”

However, NFU officials were not satisfied by the news. Responding on Friday, union officials said Defra and the RPA must step up efforts to increase the number of farm businesses who will receive BPS payments by the end of December and into January.
 
NFU President Meurig Raymond said Defra and the RPA should look at boosting resources and consider other options - such as partial payments - to bring forward the number of payments, especially for those with more complex cases or with common land. He said, “It is easy to overlook why these BPS payments are important for so many rural businesses. The severity of cashflow crisis across all farm sectors is having major impacts on farmers’ suppliers, contractors and the wider rural economy, not just farm businesses.”

Although he acknowledged “Confirmation that thirty thousand applicants will receive BPS payment next week is undoubtedly good news for these fortunate applicants,” he added, “Defra and the RPA must be under no illusion how many farm businesses will be desperate to receive their payments as soon as possible.”
 
NFU Vice President Guy Smith also commented that, after problems with the application process earlier in the year, RPA’s performance in getting payments back on track is worthy of some congratulation, but added that the union will still be seeking to meet with Liz Truss and RPA chief executive Mark Grimshaw “at the earliest opportunity.”

In a statement, Mark Grimshaw assured, “We have been working seven days a week to ensure we deliver in an accurate and timely manner, drawing on resources from across government, to process claims so that full BPS payments to farmers start to be paid on the first day of the 2015 payment window.”

The RPA is writing to farmers who they know are unlikely to be paid by the end of January to help them manage their cash flow. Typically claims with a greater degree of processing complexity, such as those with commons; cross border claims; probate cases; and those deemed complex because of their size, are likely to take longer to process and pay, as they did under the Single Payment Scheme.