Agency pledges SFP action
THE RURAL Payments Agency has pledged to tackle problems dogging its single farm payment helpline after mounting complaints from farmers who are struggling to get advice.
With the May 16 deadline looming for completed SP5 forms to be returned, the agency‘s helpline has been swamped by 2000 calls a day.
Many farmers have complained to FARMERS WEEKLY that it is impossible to get through to a helpline operator.
A major concern has been that farmers are receiving pre-populated data sheets riddled with errors.
John Howard of North East Agronomy, North Yorks, told FARMERS WEEKLY that he had spent a number of days trying to get through to the helpline.
“One morning alone I phoned 57 times in a row before giving up and phoning the local DEFRA centre.”
“If the RPA is handling 2000 calls a day, yet the evidence suggests huge numbers are still not getting through, you can only imagine how many farmers are struggling to fill in forms,” said Mr Howard.
“The majority of farmers have data for between one and three fields missing on forms. In other cases there’s not enough space to fill in all of the field data,” he said.
Getting extra data sheets has so far proved impossible, he added. Even though he drove to his local office and asked in person for more sheets, he was told to go away and try the helpline.
John Haggarty of Sulham Estate, Pangbourne, Berks, told FW he had tried to call after his printed field data sheets arrived containing errors.
“I tried to get through almost constantly for a whole afternoon, then a dozen times the next morning. You can‘t even join a queue.”
“After selecting the area your query fits into from a menu, you just get a message saying that all the operators are busy, and it cuts you off.”
A spokeswoman for the RPA admitted there had been problems and said that the agency had more than 80 people taking queries.
It is now recruiting to increase that number to 96 and is looking at ways to boost that number still further.
“We are truly sorry,” added the spokeswoman. “We are getting a number of calls which are quite specific and detailed so they are taking longer than anticipated to deal with,” she said.
“We would encourage people to first try reading the guidance notes.”
She added that farmers should be aware that there was a separate helpline number for Rural Land Register queries and another for cross-compliance issues.
The RPA has urged producers to ensure forms are signed in all areas where a signature is requested.
“We sent out 97,000 pre-populated forms and a further 15,000 blank ones. So far 80% of completed forms arriving in our offices have not been signed and have had to be returned to producers because there are missing signatures.”