Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom has secured bridging payments for farmers awaiting their full BPS payment for 2016, to ease their financial cash flow.
To date BPS payments worth £1.52 billion have been made to more than 82,000 (95.5%) farmers in England. These include payments on a range of claim types and sizes, including cross-border, young farmer, those inspected and common land claims.
Any eligible farmer who has not received their full payment for 2016 by the end of March will be offered a bridging payment for 75% of their claim value.
Speaking at the 2017 NFU Conference, Andrea Leadsom said:
As of today 95.5% of farmers have received their 2016 basic payment, but I recognise that if you’re one of the 4,000 still waiting – you need to know when you will get paid.
So this week I secured agreement from the Treasury to offer a 75% bridging payment to anyone with outstanding payments by the end of March.
The Rural Payments Agency remains focused on paying the remainder of eligible claims as promptly as possible.