Farmers urged to register for BPS with just 100 days left
The NFU is urging farmers and growers to ensure they have registered for the new system to claim farm payments in good time.
Although more than 22,500 farm business have registered, the NFU says it is vital that with only 100 days left that more people take time out to familiarise themselves with the new system, register and start the process of making their first BPS claim.
Senior BPS adviser Richard Wordsworth said: “Working with the RPA, the NFU has emailed and texted members in the recent weeks urging them to register so that they can in turn start the process of building up their first BPS claim.
“All those wishing to claim BPS need to register and that includes those that have already registered for Single Payment Scheme (SPS) Online or for that matter used an agent to help with SPS last year.
“Further functionality will be going live in the coming weeks, but do not delay the registration process.’
“If you think someone in your neighbourhood may need help in building their claim online, then do urge them to get in touch with the Rural Payments helpline to discuss what help is available. The RPA has set up 50 support centres across England where farmers can get one to one face to face help, but to access them the RPA needs to be called first.”
Important information for claimants:
To be eligible for BPS, a claimant must have at least five entitlements and five hectares of eligible land – known as the ‘minimum claim size’. If a claimant has less than five entitlements and wants to transfer out their entitlements to another farmer, they also need to be registered on the new rural payments online service, as this service will be the only way to transfer entitlements before May 15 for another farmer to use them for BPS 2015.
If a farmer has not yet registered, the first step is to go through security by proving who they are. This can be done by calling the Rural Payments helpline on 03000 200 301. This line is open Monday to Friday, 7am-6pm, except Bank holidays, and Saturday and Sunday from 8am-2pm. Claimants must ensure they have their SPS information to hand as it will help to answer registration security questions posed by the RPA. They will also need to have a password and an email account ready to use. The registration process must be completed within 12 hours of the phone call by logging onto the rural payments website https://www.gov.uk/rural-payments, where contact and land details can be checked and claimants can give others permissions to access claim data for those who may be submitting the final claim on their behalf.
