One in five farmers told to wait for BPS payment

One in five farmers in England will be left waiting for their basic payment beyond the end of January, Farmers Weekly can reveal.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is set to miss its own target of paying 82-85% of the 88,000 claimants by the end of this month, according to the NFU.

NFU president Meurig Raymond said the agency was on target to pay about 70,000, roughly 80% of claimants, by 1 February.

See also: BPS payments wait plunges Welsh farmers into crisis

The news will be a devastating blow to more than 15,000 farmers in England, for whom the wait to receive their single farm payment will continue in one of the toughest farming years in living memory.

Mr Raymond said: “Cashflow is in a desperate situation on farms and the RPA made a statement to us that their target was 82-85% to be paid by the end of January. That is the definition of the ‘vast majority’.

“Lots of farmers need to pay bills, but if you get to January and you are unable to do that then supplier confidence in your business becomes eroded.”

The NFU said about 15,000 claimants had received letters from the RPA informing them they would be unlikely to be paid by the end of January.

A freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed these claimants comprise mostly larger-scale farmers, including 8,927 whose farms have been inspected, 4,772 commons and 372 cross-border claims.

Although the agency decided these payment “tranches” on 4 August 2015, it only informed those affected on 27 November, the FoI request showed.

Anxious union members are said to be complaining about a “fog of confusion” over the payments timetable.

The NFU said Defra and its agencies must be more transparent as to when they think this money will be paid.

Defra has consistently pledged the RPA will have all the resources it needs to get payments to farmers. NFU representatives were due to visit the RPA’s offices in Reading next Friday (23 January) for an update on the payments schedule.

An RPA spokesman said: “The RPA has met its commitment to pay the majority of eligible claims in December and remains on track to pay the vast majority of claims by the end of January.

“The majority of farmers who are eligible for BPS 2015 have now been paid. This amounts to just under £425m reaching the bank accounts of 44,400 farmers, almost 51% of all claimants.”

Meanwhile, north of the border, NFU Scotland has called on Scottish government to make a new timetable, outlining when farmers will be paid.

Despite investing £178m in a IT delivery system, only 18% of Scottish farmers had received their BPS part payment by the end of 2015, leaving 82% “completely in the dark” over when their first instalment will arrive.

Scottish rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead said the government was “working flat out to maximise the number of payments”.