RPA error leads to payment form recall

The Rural Payments Agency has been forced to recall hundreds of single payment scheme forms after farmers were sent the wrong documents.

Five hundred farmers were sent incorrect application forms for the 2010 single payment following an administrative error.

Peter Onions, an arable farmer from Shelton Lodge near Newark in Nottinghamshire, said he was sent a form belonging to a farmer 60 miles away.

“I rang the agency on Monday and they admitted they had made a number of errors and would send me the right form once I’d returned the wrong one,” he said.

“The mind boggles at the cost and timescale – I only have 10 weeks to get my forms sorted.

“It’s atrocious that what is obviously a simple error was not found out before the forms were dispatched.”

An RPA spokeswoman said those affected had been sent an apology letter and a postage-paid envelope to return the application pack to the agency.

The correct packs would be reissued “within the next couple of days”, she said.

“Letters are also being sent to the farmers who had a copy of their application form sent to another farmer,” she added.