RPA to start making interest payments this week

The Rural Payments Agency says it will, this week, start making interest payments to eligible farmers who received any full or top-up single farm payment after the 30 June deadline.

In total £386,201 will be paid to 2,559 customers, although over 13,000 claimants who received payments after 30 June fall below the minimum £50 interest payment eligibility threshold and will not receive anything, it said.

“We’re glad they’ve at last got around to paying the interest, but the saddest thing is that it was necessary to do so in the first place,” commented the Country Land and Business Association’s Alan Buckwell.

“I hope they’ve got to the bottom of what casued the system to go so awry in the first place and we don’t face the same problems next year.”

Interest has been calculated from 1 July, using the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) +1% and the RPA will continue to make interest payments monthly, once each final payment is made to customers still awaiting full or partial payment top-ups.

The RPA is sending details to all customers involved this week.

Since the end of June the interest rates have been:

Example: If you were due a payment of £9,500 which was not made until the end of August the interest due would be:

The total payable of £93.07 is above the minimum threshold and interest would be paid.