RPA sets up team to deal with commoners’ queries

Commoners waiting for their 2016 Basic Payment or a top-up on their 2015 claim can now access a specialist team set up to deal with any queries about the status of their application.

The Foundation for Common Land said from 6 February commoners who ring the Rural Payments Agency helpline can ask to be put through to the dedicated commons team.

“This is a most welcome development as it has been frustrating for commoners not to be able to speak to someone who understands their claim,” it said.

See also: Commoners at ‘back of queue’ for BPS payments

While the situation facing commoners is far better than last year, when they were pushed to the end of the queue because of the complexity of their claims, the FCL said there were about 550 commoners still waiting for a 2016 payment.

It said many of these claimants also had issues unrelated to their common land that needed to be resolved.

Work to review 2015 claims and pay top-ups where required was also continuing.

The foundation said it was also pressing Defra and the RPA to improve the functionality of their systems so maps were viewable online and full breakdowns of claims provided.

It stated: “The RPA has informed us they have completed the remapping exercise and will be updating the data on gov.uk to reflect the revised eligible area of each common. Once this is available commoners will be able to estimate the individual payment they can expect.”