Got a question about your 2011 single farm payment application?

If you've got a form-filling query, then help is at hand, because a team from the RPA has agreed to answer questions if you post them on this thread.

They'll be regularly checking the thread and answering questions in a bid to help you complete your forms, either on paper or electronically, as quickly, easily and accurately as possible.

They'll start posting answers from March 21 - but you can start adding your questions here straight away.

We want this thread to be as useful to everyone as possible - so please keep your queries limited to 2011 forms...

In the area regarding the number of sheep on a common, we have always only put the ewes we have rites for and not the followers. Others on our common have put their total combined, although it makes no difference to SPS payments, we have been getting a smaller percentage than we should of ELS, now UELS monies for our common land. Our association has advised us to sort it on our 2011 claim form and then percentages can be reworked. How do we do this? What supporting documentation will we have to send? Or can we simply just change the number on the form?

Dear hallfaer,

Thank you for your question. If you are referring to the sheep rights you should declare for commons on the SP5, then you should declare the rights that you have as defined in the Commons register under the 1965 act. These are held at County Council offices.In terms of the proportion of the payment that your commons association give you in respect of the Commons Uplands ELS agreement, that is entirely for you to discuss with the commons association concerned. It relates to your internal agreement with them on how the funds should be allocated.If there is any uncertainty regarding the followers then it may be helpful to include a covering letter. Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the reply.

So where in the past we have put 500 for the number of ewes on the commom, we can simply put 600 (500 ewes + 100 followers) in the same box as there is no dispute regarding numbers. Is this right?

Thanks again.

For SPS you will only be allocated the number of rights you have claimed up to the maximum number you hold within the 1965 register. If the register stated 500 sheep and 100 followers, you would then declare 600 sheep in Part CA of your SPS application form.  I hope this makes it clear. Again, a covering letter with your application should clarify any detail. In the letter I would also suggest you make reference to the entry number on the register for ease.  You will need to discuss information for the Uplands ELS agreement with your Commons Association who will, if necessary, need to discuss it with Natural England.

 

Many thanks

Hi,

We own a smallholding but don't have any livestock.  We have rented the land out to a local farmer with a 'grazing licence' agreement in place which runs to July 2011. We will be renewing this with the farmer at this point should he wish to continue the tenancy (tenancy period is for 364 days).

The agreement states that the licensee (the farmer) will not make any claim for the Single Payment.   The agreement was drawn up via a generic template supplied by the local land agents.   The farmer has asked if we have any objections to him claiming.

We would appreciate your advice as to whether there are risks to us as the landowner if the farmer claims an entitlement for sheep on our land?  In future, if the farmer is no longer using the land and we start to keep livestock, will we be able to claim the SP?   Can the farmer take the entitlement to our land with him - or does it expire on the expiry of the grazing licence?

We would like to give the farmer an answer asap in order that he can complete his forms, so look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks in advance

 

 

I am unsure whether I should be claiming on land that MAY be transferred at sometime within the 2011 year.  It is not a pipeline but a private agreement for land take.  Some of this will be permanent, some will shall get back within 9 months - but the actual strat date has not been confirmed.  It has been in agricultural production to date and will continue to be until they start work.  Can this be claimed upon? What happens if work starts - for example in July - and the land is no longer in agricultural use for a period of time?

Dear janeymx 

 

If the farmer renting your land uses it to support his SPS 2011application, this will not prevent you from using the land  to claim SPS in future years. To claim SPS you must have the land at your disposal on the application deadline for the scheme year and you must meet the SPS eligibility requirements and the cross compliance rules for the whole calendar year. You must have eligible land and entitlements to claim SPS. We allocated entitlements in a one-off exercise in 2005 and they are not tied to any particular parcel of land. From what you say, it sounds as if the farmer renting your land is planning to use his own entitlements to support an application in 2011 for your land? This will not affect you if you want to apply for SPS in future years, but you must have the correct number of entitlements to be able to claim (one entitlement for each eligible hectare). We cannot allocate additional entitlements on your land, but they can be bought on the open market. The farmer renting your land must also meet the SPS rules for having the land at his disposal. If he is renting the land under a Farm Business Tenancy on 16 May he will meet these rules. Alternatively, if he only has access to graze or mow land under a grazing licence he will not normally be able to use that land to claim SPS. If his agreement gives him other responsibilities for the management of the land it may be possible for him to use that land to claim SPS, depending on the terms of the agreement and how it works in practice on the land.  (For more information read Section E of the SPS Handbook for 2011 & 2012 http://rpa.defra.gov.uk/rpa/index.nsf/vContentByTaxonomy/C8C90F8597779D3F80257841005112C8?OpenDocument). The farmer must also meet all of the cross compliance rules. If you, as the landowner, breach any of the cross compliance rules, the farmer will be held liable and may face reductions to his SPS payment. 

 

Dear paperwork girl

If you want to claim SPS on land it must be at your disposal on the application deadline, 16 May 2011, and the land must also meet the SPS eligibility requirements for the whole calendar year (read section E of the SPS Handbook for England 2011 and 2012).

Certain non-agricultural activities are allowed on the land for up to 28 days per calendar year, for example, shows, car boot sales, festivals or events (read section C of the SPS Handbook).  If the land is taken out of agricultural use because of, for example, building or utility works, it may not meet the SPS eligibility requirements.  If it does not meet these requirements you should not use the land to claim SPS in your 2011 SPS application and you may want to claim compensation for any loss of SPS payment from the party involved, or get alternative land to use for your SPS application.

If you do use the land to claim SPS in your 2011 SPS application and later realise that the land will not be eligible for the whole calendar year, you must write to tell us and withdraw these areas from your claim as soon as possible. You must also meet all of the cross compliance rules on the land as long as it remains agricultural. If you do not do either of these we may apply penalties.  (For more information read section C of the SPS Handbook).

Many thanks for your quick and helpful response.

We will check with the farmer that he was planning to use his entitlements - but assume he was planning to as we don't have any entitlements that we are aware of!  Presumably we would have to buy some entitlements on the open market if we started to farm our land and wanted to claim SPS in future years?  I forgot to mention that we are living in Wales - so presume that there aren't any regional differences we need to be aware of (apart for the date on which you qualify).

As mentioned, the  grazing licence we signed with the farmer was from a generic template - giving him the right to graze and mow etc.  In reality he is managing the land for the purposes of his livestock - and is doing the hedging, topping etc.  If we added an addendum to the grazing licence to this effect and stating he is responsible for cross compliance requirements - would this then meet the SPS requirements enabling him to claim?

In summary, there appear to be no risks to us as the land owner in allowing the farmer to claim - ie. no risk of us losing any entitlements in future,  no risk of being penalised etc.  We would just need to ensure we understand cross compliance rules in order that we don't breach them to the detriment of the farmer.  Is that accurate?

Thanks again

 

 

 

Hi,

As well as filling in our own SPS forms online, we have several share farm agreement with a few landowners. We have always assisted in filling in the forms; traditionally by visiting them to help them fill in the paper forms, which they then sign and post off. Most of these people are not computer literate, but last year i applied for Government Gateway passwords on their behalf, which were then posted to their address, and then i went round with the laptop and we filled them in together, and emailled the forms off.

My question is that i could ask for their log in details, and so in theory could fill in the forms without them, and send them off. Clearly the existing bank details stay the same, so payment will go to the correct place, but is that legal and ok, or do i need to fill in an SP9 form, even though as its done online there is no signature required? All email correspondence for these farms comes to me, as as stated the people in question arent computer literate, but postal address remain unchanged.

Or should i register as an agent online in order to fill in these peoples forms? Only reason i think this may be unnecessary is that if i knew their login details anyway, i think i could make myself agent for them anyway, and hence its no more secure anyway.

Thanks in advance.

janeymx:

I forgot to mention that we are living in Wales - so presume that there aren't any regional differences we need to be aware of (apart for the date on which you qualify).

 

Dear Janeymx

As you are living in Wales, please contact the Welsh Assembly - they'll be able to help. RPA administers SPS to farmers in England.

 My question is about how non-farmed parcels within an ELS holding should be entered on the SPS form.

Our whole farm except for farm roads and yards is entered in the ELS scheme. I am advised that woodland should be entered in the SP5 form as FR1 and that other areas of banks, bushes etc as AE1. None of these parcels qualifies for options in our ELS scheme, but they contribute to the total farm area for ELS. The areas were not used to activate SPS entitlements in 2008

My pre-populated SP5 form includes the full areas of these parcels in column C4 (Maximum area eligible for SPS), and the RPA Customer Service Centre reassure me that this is correct, and that I should enter a blank (not a zero) in column C9 (Area to activate entitlements). However page 17 of the SPS Handbook 2011 states that woodland is NOT eligible for SPS.

Should I enter these areas in column C4 or not? Or doesn't it matter what I do as I will not be entering a figure in column C9?

An authorative answer, please!

Thank you.  Sorry I hadn't realised - I'll contact the Welsh Assembly.  Many thanks for your advice.

Best wishes

 J

henryw:

My question is about how non-farmed parcels within an ELS holding should be entered on the SPS form

 

Dear henryw

As you suggest, the most important thing is to make sure that you do not make an entry in column C9 of the application form for those areas, as they cannot be used to activate entitlements for payment.

How areas of trees, banks and bushes should be treated on the rest of your form depends on whether the whole land parcel is ineligible, or just an area within it. If the whole parcel is ineligible, for instance woodland, you would use the land use codes as you describe below and change the C4 entry to zero. However, if only part of the parcel is ineligible, you should treat it as a permanent or temporary ineligible feature, reducing the maximum area eligible for SPS (column C4) for the parcel accordingly, but coding the land use to reflect the way that the rest of the field is being used.

Where whole land parcels are ineligible, or there are permanent ineligible features such as buildings, hard standings or ponds within them, you should also submit an RLE1 form to tell us about the ineligibility. We will adjust the information held on the Rural Land Register accordingly and be able to pre-print your 2012 SPS application form with the correct eligible area figures in column C4. 

 

Alfm:

As well as filling in our own SPS forms online, we have several share farm agreement with a few landowners.

Dear Alfm

If you are filling in and submitting the form on someone else’s behalf, then you should be properly empowered on our systems to do this. This means that you should have been given scheme empowerments for SPS by these claimants. They would do this by either telephoning our Customer Service Centre, filling in and submitting an SP9 form, or filling in and submitting a CReg01 form nominating you at the scheme empowerment section.

If you are not properly empowered, we will not be able to talk to you or deal with your written correspondence about any issues that may subsequently arise with the SPS application.

 

 

We have stints on our common with surplus grazing .Last year the number of rites required were in number of cattle grazing and number of notional grazing rites but this time the form is prepopulated with number of cattle and entitlements . These prepopoulated fiqures seem to bear no resemblance to last years entries . As I have not receieved last years payment I am unable to check if anything has gone wrong !

PS On a note to Fwi I am unable to correct my email address in my profile it should be @ymail.com not ymail.co.uk

Hi, thanks for that. As stated we not doing that at present, but visiting farmers and filling it in with them. But will fill in forms to get permission if things change. RPA could note that to get onto the site needed several pin no etc etc that had to be sent to the individuals registered address, so the only way i could get logins would be with the individuals permission anyway.

what is the difference between special entitlements and normal entitlements

 Thank you for this clear information..........It seems more logical!

Does it make any difference whether I submit the RLE1 form before or after submitting the completed SP5 application? And will reducing the C4 figures to zero and sending in an RLE form slow down the processing of our SPS claim in any way?

saysles:

what is the difference between special entitlements and normal entitlements

 

Dear saysles

Normal Entitlements, the standard entitlement type, were allocated to farmers in the first year of application (2005) based on the number of hectares of eligible agricultural land they declared.  Every year since then, Normal Entitlements are activated for payment based on eligible land that a farmer declares each year as a part of their annual application.  For instance, if a farmer holds 10ha of eligible land, he is able to activate up to 10 Normal Entitlements for the SPS payment.
 
Special Entitlements were allocated to certain livestock farmers in 2005 who met specific criteria.  They were designed to allow these farmers to receive the full value of their historic reference amount when they held little or no land for the purposes of establishing Normal Entitlements.  Examples would include farmers who relied on rented land or annual grass lets for grazing their animals and claiming livestock subsidies prior to SPS.
 
These farmers would either have no land of their own upon which to establish Normal Entitlements, or so little land that the value of their Normal Entitlements would exceed the €5,000 limit (placed on certain livestock farmers under EC Regulations) when their historic reference amount was spread across them.
 
Special Entitlements are not activated against land in the same way as Normal Entitlements.  Instead, they are activated based on the farmer maintaining a certain level of livestock production on his holding during the year.  This is measured in Livestock Units (LUs) and the exact level varies in each case based on the amount of animals they claimed in the 2000-2002 period (farmers are required to maintain at least 50% of the average livestock production they had over those years).
 
For more information on entitlements read section D of the latest SPS Handbook which can be found at http://rpa.defra.gov.uk/sps2011

Cloud8:

We have stints on our common with surplus grazing

Dear Cloud8

Thank you for your question.

Without knowing the full details of your application I am unable to say why the pre-population on your SP5 may differ this year to last year. If you have any concerns please contact the Customer Service Centre who will be able to provide you with further information.

Where the rights are expressed in the register in the form of stints, farmers are advised to enter a right type of ‘STNTS’ on their SPS application form. You must ensure you provide information with your application showing the equivalent value of the stints as defined in the register.  RPA will use this to calculate the actual value of the rights.  (Rather than entering ‘STNTS’ farmers can choose to work out for themselves which animal type would maximize their claim and enter this on their form).  For example, if a commoner claimed 5 stints on their application form and provided information showing that 1 stint equates to 1 cattle or 2 sheep, RPA would look to see what animal type would maximise their claim (using the standard conversion factors as set out in Annex B of the ‘Single Payment Scheme Handbook for England 2011 & 2012’).  In this example, it would be the cattle (1 x 5 = 5 LUs, whereas for sheep it would be 0.60 x 5 = 3 LUs).  In the following year ‘CTTLE’ (the abbreviation used for cattle) would be pre-printed on the application form and ‘5.00’ pre-printed as the number of rights.

For more information on commons read section F of the latest SPS Handbook which can be found at http://rpa.defra.gov.uk/sps2011 

 

 

henryw:

Does it make any difference whether I submit the RLE1 form before or after submitting the completed SP5 application?

Dear henryw
 
You should fill in and send us the RLE 1 form as soon as there are any changes to your land to ensure it is recorded correctly on the RLR.
Where you have not already told us, we would like you to fill it in and send it to us with your SP5 application.
 
Reducing areas in C4 to zero will not slow down the processing of your claim, as you are not claiming these areas.
You can fill in and send us an RLE 1 afterwards, but we’d much rather you sent it in earlier so we can get it updated on the RLR. This will mean we can include the updates on any maps and pre-populate your next year’s application with the correct information.

Dear Tim

Where does a Law of Property Act Receiver stand in relation to to single farm payments for land that has gone into receivership? Is the Receiver entitled to to any payment schemes received from the land?