Part payments roll out to farmers - UK - New Defra Secretary of State David Miliband has announced that, after a successful pilot of the part-payments programme, the RPA has now processed all part payments.

The £730m released should reach farmers within a week. This means that 85% of the £1.5bn pot will have been distributed.

The details

Some 30,000 farmers will receive a part payment. The payment is based on approximately 80% of the total claim value (see below for information on what part payments do not cover). Importantly, 31,000 claimants were not included in the part payment run. 26,000 of these are small claims (<1,000 euros). A further 5,000 fall into other categories which have meant part payments are not feasible.

These include claims where payments in euros were requested, where there are outstanding double claims on areas and where other complexities in the claim have prevented an 80% estimate being possible. The RPA has said that it will give highest priority to validating and making full payments to those who fall within these categories.

HFA

HFA claimants will be receiving a part payment of their SPS claim, unless they fall into one of the above groups. HFA claims are being prioritised and a further statement will be made about these as soon as possible; HFA payments will not be included in the balancing payment but paid separately.

Other payments not included in the part payment

Energy crops, protein crops and nut claims
Payments for land declared in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales
Multi-annual set-aside

Equally, reductions for modulation and penalties have not been incorporated in the part payments. Adjustments for those and the payments listed above will be built into the balancing payment. Given that the part payment is based only on an estimate of the full payment, there will be instances where the amount paid turns out to be higher than the full amount due following validation of the claim. Any such excess payments will be recouped.

Payment statement

The payments will in all likelihood arrive ahead of any payment statement. The payment statements themselves will be sparse. Members should not expect a complete breakdown of how the payment was calculated; further information will follow at the same time as the balancing payment. The RPA has requested that claimants do not contact its customer service centre for further information at this stage. Maximum resources are being dedicated to validating claims as quickly as possible.