3 February 2011

Somerset farmers are at "risk of eviction and cannot afford to pay for feed" while they wait for thousands of pounds in owed subsidies, an MP said.

Wells MP Tessa Munt, as reported by the BBC, said 12 farmers had contacted her about money owed to them by the Rural Payments Agency.

The Lib Dem MP also told parliament 10 farmers were owed about £295,000.

Conservative Agriculture Minister James Paice said he was determined the RPA could move forward to "put cash in their hands as soon as possible".

Complex cases

The RPA, which is responsible for subsidies to farmers and is an executive agency of Defra, has been hit by computer problems which have led to many payments being severely delayed.

An RPA spokesperson said it had met its first formal target which was to pay 85% of valid Single Payment Scheme claims by the end of 2010.

The spokeswoman added: "Every SPS claim is subject to a series of validation checks in line with detailed EU rules.

"The more complex cases, often the higher value ones and claims involving issues such as the transfer of entitlements, can require significantly more processing activity so these take longer to process."