{"id":55469,"date":"2015-03-19T18:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T18:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=794f56a2a0ef4bda131b589cefc81839"},"modified":"2015-03-19T18:00:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T18:00:19","slug":"press-release-rural-payments-agency-announces-new-approach-to-help-farmers-meet-basic-payment-scheme-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=55469","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Rural Payments Agency announces new approach to help farmers meet Basic Payment Scheme deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Steps to ensure that farmers and their agents can complete their Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) claims on time have been announced by the Rural Payments Agency (<abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr>) today.<\/p>\n<p>While the core and registration parts of the Rural Payments system are working well, there have been performance problems with the online interface that farmers and agents use.  The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> is now offering farmers and their agents the use of established forms and processes to complete their claims by the deadline.  The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> will then input this data on to the system.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> has ensured it has the resources it needs to undertake this work on time. This means that it will be able to make payments to farmers from December 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from registering, farmers will not be asked to enter any further data online now. Data that has already been entered onto the system has been saved and will be used.<\/p>\n<p>From 23rd March, two forms will be available to download from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/rural-payments-agency\"><abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>. These are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>RLE1, which allows claimants to transfer land and entitlements and make changes to their land;<\/li>\n<li>BP5, the BPS claim form.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> Chief Executive, Mark Grimshaw said: \u201cMy priority is to ensure that every farmer and agent has the help they need to make their claims on time.  Using tried-and-tested <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> forms will make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving listened to feedback, the <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> will now combine existing forms that farming businesses are used to, with data that the Rural Payments system already has. This will mean that everyone who is registered and wants to complete a 2015 Basic Payment Scheme claim can do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> will tomorrow (20th March) begin to email all farmers and agents who have already registered on the Rural Payments website to provide further detail on completing and submitting claims.<\/p>\n<p>The new ways farmers can complete their claims are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Farm businesses with little change to their land will be fast-tracked by the <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr>.  They will receive an email in April that summarises the land and entitlement information already held, together with simple instructions on completing their claim by email. The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> has identified approximately 39,000 farmers in this category.<\/li>\n<li>Farm businesses that need to map new features can use blank existing forms to prepare their claims, before they are sent a pre-populated form in April.  They can submit their claim by post or through an <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> drop-in centre.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any farmer who has not received an up-to-date map of their land from the <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> in the last six months will be sent one during April.<\/p>\n<p>All agents will have received maps of their clients\u2019 land from the <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> by the end of next week.  Those dealing with the most complex cases will be offered additional support.   The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> is also working to give them direct access to the system.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Grimshaw also said: \u201cWe welcome today\u2019s announcement by Commissioner Hogan to offer an extension of the deadline for BPS claims to 15th June.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All farmers and their agents can get tailored help at any of 50 <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> drop-in centres or by calling the <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> helpline on 03000 200 301.  The <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> is also providing mobile units to help reach the most isolated and vulnerable farmers.<\/p>\n<p>Farmers still need to register using the online Rural Payments service to begin the process of making their claim. So far over 80% of farmer businesses have successfully done this. It remains the only way that farmers and their agents can register to make a claim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Farmers and agents will be offered the use of established forms and processes to complete their claims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}