Farming

RPA update on BPS claims

Posted at April 11, 2015 | By : | Categories : Farming,News | Comments Off on RPA update on BPS claims

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has announced more detail on next steps for farmers and landowners who wish to claim for Basic Payment Scheme 2015.

The Agency says that pre-populated BP5 claim forms will start to be sent out next week by email, to everyone who has registered on the Rural Payments online system.

They will also get guidance on how to apply via email initially, with paper copies to follow in the post.

Where a farmer has fully empowered an agent to act on their behalf, these communications will go direct to the agent.

Map packs will arrive for those who have not received an up-to-date map of their land in the past six months. These show all the information currently held about the land including permanent field boundaries (such as hedges, fences or watercourses) and permanent ineligible features which the RPA knows about.

Request for changes to the Rural Land Register and for the transfer of entitlements (the RLE1 form) which has recently been made available on GOV.UK, should be used to tell RPA about changes to land or to transfer entitlements.

Finally, new and young (4o years or younger) farmers are reminded they are now able to start the process to qualify for BPS entitlements under the “national reserve”.

Under Common Agricultural Policy reforms, up to 3% of the total BPS budget this year has been earmarked to create entitlements for new and young farmers. A further 2% will be used to fund extra money for young farmers who have set up or taken control of their farm in the last five years.

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