The Rural Payment Agency's approach to its current remapping exercise has led to an increasing amount of outstanding payments coupled with poor communication, the NFU has warned..
NFU Vice President Guy Smith has urged the RPA to "up its game" ahead of the increase in communications resulting from the current remapping exercise, as the industry heads towards the 2017 payment window opening in December.
Yesterday, FarmingUK reported that a number of farmers spoke of concerns about changes to their land parcels and consequent anomalies concerning 2017 Basic Payments.
The RPA had previously used satellite aerial imagery to update its mapping, which had in many cases been done incorrectly.
It is understood that these glitches caused around a third increase in the amount of time taken to process 2017 BPS applications with the most affected areas appearing to be Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Kent.
'Stretch on manpower'
Mr Smith said the "stretch on manpower" at the RPA is continuing to impact on the service provided to farmers.
“Due to a clear lack of resource, many farmers who have been trying to contact them over 2015 and 2016 claim issues going back as far as last spring, are only met with a wall of silence,” Mr Smith explained.
“The RPA seem to have undertaken a stealth policy which minimises outbound contact as much as possible. This seems self-defeating as it will only lead to more frustration and further inbound correspondence from farmers which could be avoided.”
'Timely manner'
Back in the spring, the RPA launched a payment query form to help manage outstanding 2015 and 2016 claim queries, but farmers continue to report to that they have not seen any activity on the back of completing these forms.
“As we head to the 2017 payment window opening, we do not want unfinished 2015 and 2016 payment issues alongside a potential increase in communication over mapping changes,” Mr Smith said.
“The RPA needs to issue 2017 payments correctly and in a timely manner, and if there are to be delays they must ensure that the affected parties are notified to help them manage the situation.
“NFU members are worried that incorrectly recorded data from the last two years will lead to further inaccuracy for this year’s BPS claims. The current remapping exercise could impact on not just BPS payments, but the impact on agri-environment schemes too. In the meantime, we encourage members to start checking any revised mapping now and to raise any concerns accordingly.”
