No excuses for late payments, farmers tell Rural Payments Agency

TFA Chief Executive George Dunn
TFA Chief Executive George Dunn

The Tenant Farmers Association has said that it will be holding the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to account on the promise made to deliver 90% of 2016 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments to claimants in December of this year.

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn said: "DEFRA's decision not to grant an extension to the 2016 BPS deadline in England put many farmers and agents assisting them, through a major amount of stress and strain to get applications back to the RPA by the 16 May deadline.

"In light of the decision not to move the deadline, the TFA has warned the RPA that TFA members have a fixed expectation that it will meet the objective of paying 90% of 2016 claims in December of this year and that those payments must be correct so we will not have to deal with such a large number of post payment adjustments as we have seen for the 2015 scheme year."

There is also a substantial amount of unfinished business from 2015 which the RPA must now address with urgency.

This includes the need for corrections to claims where individuals have received less than their entitlement, issues with entitlement transfers and mapping and looking into why, unexpectedly, some people have received no payment at all.

"The RPA must move quickly to look at post payment adjustments for those individuals who believe that they have been incorrectly penalised on their 2015 claims even to the extent of receiving no payment whatsoever for their 2015 application.

"We need a detailed plan from the RPA to be assured as to how it intends to take this work forward," said Mr Dunn.

Ongoing mapping work carried out remotely by the RPA is also causing concerns for many TFA members.

"The RPA appears to be making changes unilaterally to the online data provided by applicants based on information it has received from the Ordnance Survey or remote sensing which clearly has been misinterpreted.

"This is causing applicants’ data to be incorrect in comparison to the reality on the ground.

"We have asked for a procedure to deal with incorrect changes already made by the RPA to date and to have a better system in place for the future so that any amendments proposed by the RPA can be first checked by applicants to ensure that they are correct before the changes are made on the system," said Mr Dunn.