RPA pays 95% of single farm payments

The Rural Payments Agency has met its EU targets for single farm payments scheme nearly four months early – processing more than 95% of claims.
The agency has paid £1.651bn to 100,605 eligible farmers and food producers for the 2011 single farm payment scheme, figures released on Wednesday (7 March) showed.
This means that the agency had paid out 95.4% of the fund to 96% of eligible claimants. But 3,500 farmers are still waiting to be paid.
It means the RPA has met its second government performance indicator for the scheme three weeks ahead of schedule. In meeting the target, the agency has also passed the EU benchmark to pay over 95.238% of the scheme fund value by the end of June, nearly four months early. Last year the Agency met the EU benchmark in late May.
Chief Executive Mark Grimshaw said: “Thanks to the hard work of our people and their determination to provide the best customer service, we have made this volume of payments significantly earlier than has been achieved in any previous year while maintaining our focus on accuracy.
“Our attention now is clearly on those 3,500 or so farmers and food producers who have yet to be paid and we promise there will be no let-up on validating claims and making payments.
“We will be in touch with those claimants who look likely to remain unpaid at the end of March to explain the status on their claim, including any corrective work and payment adjustments related to previous scheme years.”
He added that the work on the legacy issues of their claims was vital if the agency were to provide the platform for better and faster customer service for 2012 scheme year and fulfil the ambitions of its recently announced five-year plan.
The RPA released this table called ‘Real actions, not words’ to show how it has performed against its goals:
Does the RPA’s performance confirm your experiences of the SFP this year? Comment on the forum on the RPA.
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