OFC 2016: Farmers given no assurances on BPS payments by February

Defra has refused to say how many farmers in England can expect to receive their 2015 Basic Payment by the end of January – after it emerged that £1bn remains to be paid.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) met its target of paying most farmers by the end of December – but only just. By the end of the month, payments were made to 44,400 claimants – slightly less than 51% of the claimant population.

That leaves about 43,600 farmers still to pay.

But the agency has only paid out about 30% of the total basic payment “pot” for England – delivering about £430m out of a total of £1.45bn – which the NFU says is about “30%, which is substantially less than ‘a majority’”.

See also: Farmers in England still waiting for £1bn in BPS cash

The RPA’s next target is to ensure that the “vast majority” of claimants have been paid by the end of January. But Defra secretary Liz Truss has repeatedly refused to say how many recipients or how much money meeting this target will involve.

Ms Truss said: “We’ve focused on the simplest payments – it would be wrong just to be paying the larger farmers [who] get the biggest amount of money out of the pot. We have tried to maximise the number of farmers that get paid. We’ve always been clear that is way we would do it.”

Amid mounting calls for part-payments to farmers, the NFU says delays are compounding cashflow problems on farms. At an average borrowing rate of 3.7%, it says the outstanding £1bn equates to more than £90,000 in interest being sucked out of the rural economy daily.

“We have tried to maximise the number of farmers that get paid. We’ve always been clear that is way we would do it”
Liz Truss, Defra

Slow payments also had implications beyond agriculture, said NFU vice-president Guy Smith.

“We should remember that when this £1bn eventually gets to those who need it, it will not just hang around in farm bank accounts but will pay bills that will benefit the wider rural economy,” he said.

Country Land and Business Association president Ross Murray said the RPA had a duty to be completely clear about when and how farmers would be paid.

He added: “We will continue to do all we can to help the RPA to ensure that applications are processed as swiftly as possible.”

The RPA has warned that more complex claims will take longer to process and probably longer to pay – as they did under the Single Payment Scheme.

It has promised to update claimants who are unlikely to be paid by the end of January and estimate when they will be paid.

In Scotland, the first instalments of BPS payments started arriving in bank accounts from 31 December.

Up to Wednesday (6 January), about 3,500 of Scotland’s 21,000 eligible crofters and farmers had received part payments authorised, the Scottish government said.

Scottish rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead said: “Those farmers and crofters have received 75% of their Basic Payments, and 90% of greening payments.”

Between now and March, further payments will be made. The Scottish government was working flat out to process the maximum number and value of payments, Mr Lochhead added.