Nearly one in five farmer still not received BPS payments for last year

Nearly one in five farmers have still not received their BPS payments for last year.

With this year’s applications just around the corner some 17 or 18 per cent have still not received last year's money. In 2014 97 percent of farmers had received their payments by December, showing that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

However Richard Wordsworth, the NFU’s senior advisor on the Basic Payment Scheme,  said that the Rural Payments Agency had made changes to this year’s applications with a move to a more online system.

Richard said that this year will most likely be a stepping stone and that he expects more improvements to be made for next year. The Rural Payments Agency is aiming towards the majority of applications being made online in a bid to speed up processing times.

Richard spoke to FarmingUK TV at Scotch Corner during one of many special BPS meetings organised by the NFU over the next month.