With less than a month to go before Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments to farmers in England are due to start, good progress is being made by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA ).
A series of transfers and checks need to be made before payments can be made. The RPA has confirmed that it has completed land and entitlement transfer processing and will write to farmers and agents to confirm that their transfers have been made in the coming weeks.
This means that the RPA remains on track to make full BPS payments as early as possible in the payment window with the majority before the end of December and the vast majority by the end of January 2016.The BPS payment window opens in December and closes in June 2016.
The RPA will issue BPS payments via BACS transfer and applicants are reminded that if their bank details have changed they need to call the Rural Services helpline on 03000 200 301 to provide new details.
If applicants have recently changed their email address they can log in to the Rural Payments system to update it.
Farmers who have applied for BPS 2015 but have not yet registered on the Rural Payments system are advised to contact the Rural Services helpline on 03000 200 301 as soon as possible. The RPA will be unable to make payments to applicants who are not registered.
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Contacts:
corporatecommunications@rpa.gsi.gov.uk Tel: 0118 9687 959