Today (8 April) the Rural Payments Agency has confirmed that farmers will start receiving bridging payments from 12 April. These payments will cover Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2018 claims and Countryside Stewardship (CS) 2018 advance payments.
More than 99% of BPS 2018 claims have now been processed, a significant improvement on previous years. Today’s announcement means that remaining eligible claimants will receive a payment for 75% of the estimated value of their claim.
They will also cover unpaid 2018 CS advance payments. More than 95% of these payments have been made to farmers who are delivering important environmental work.
RPA Chief Executive Paul Caldwell said:
We have worked hard to improve our performance on the Basic Payment Scheme, and this year just a small number of farmers will be receiving bridging payments. We are also committed to driving up performance on the CS and ES schemes since taking those on in October last year.
Our focus remains on processing the remaining claims and paying farmers as quickly as possible. I would like to thank all those involved for their continued efforts on this.