Tag: BPS

As the 2018 BPS ‘claim season’  is nearing its end, just a few reminders.  The deadline for applications to be submitted, to avoid late application penalties, is midnight on May 15th.  This includes applications and supporting evidence for the Young Farmer Payment and applications to the National Reserve.  It is still possible to make a late application up to midnight on 11th June 2018 (usually 9th June but that’s a Saturday) but this will attract a 1% penalty for each working day late.  After the 11th June it is not possible to make an application to the 2018 scheme.

Where a claim has been submitted by 15th May it is possible to make certain amendments up until midnight on 31st May without penalty, these include:

• adding a land parcel
• increasing the eligible area of a land parcel
• changing the land use of a land parcel
• increasing the area required to be used to activate entitlements

These changes can also be made between 31st May and 11th June but will attract a penalty.  In addition, applicants can withdraw all or part of an application at anytime, as long as they have not been told of an inspection or any non-compliance within their application.

Drop-in Centres

The six drop-in centres (see below) are now open.  Originally they weren’t going to be open until 1st May.  These only offer a simple check and receipt service, but no other ‘support’.  Agents can request an appointment at any of the centres by emailing: [email protected] giving at least 48 hours notice.  Include in the email, the site, date and time of the requested appointment, also a CRN or PI number, contact details and the number of applications to be dropped off.  Centres will be open 9am until 5pm excluding weekends and the bank holiday until 14th May.  On 15th May Centres will close at the later time of 10pm.  Appointments can be requested between 9am and 4pm.  Appointments will not be confirmed.  RPA will only contact you if it needs to re-arrange a different time.

The six sites are at: Carlisle, Exeter, Newcastle, Reading, Workington and York.

The RPA has published new guidance on how to check and change hedge information, this can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/696039/How_to_check_and_change_your_hedge_information.pdf.  The guidance is important where hedges will form part of an application or claim under the Basic Payment Scheme or Countryside Stewardship Scheme (not Environmental Stewardship).

As previously reported, there is a new ‘Hedge Layer’ on applicants’ Rural Payments accounts, which maps out the hedges in each land parcel.  This can be viewed in the ‘Land Viewer’.  Also, where hedges have been used to satisfy EFA requirements previously, these have been pre-populated in the Land-Use screen.  In both cases, there appear to be a lot of inaccuracies and the new guidance shows claimants when and how to correct this information.

If claimants disagree with the hedge information on their digital maps or a hedge is not shown, they only need to correct this if they will be using the hedge for:

• BPS EFA requirements
• a Countryside Stewardship Scheme application, or
• submitting a claim for an existing Countryside Stewardship Agreement

To correct hedge information an RLE1 form and sketch map needs to be submitted.  Complete the form at Part D.  Fill in columns D1, D4 and D5.  The code (at D4) should be H and the Effective date of change (at D5) should be 01/01/2018 or later.   Annotate a sketch map showing the length and location of hedges as on the ground.  It is possible to take a ‘screen shot’ of the Hedges information from the Land Viewer to mark on the correct hedges.  If the gap between hedges is less than 20m, the hedge should be shown as a continual length.

Where hedge information has been incorrectly pre-populated in the Land Use section this can be updated. If this disagrees with the digital maps an RLE1 will need to be submitted as above.  Where there are multiple hedge entries in the Land Use for one land parcel it is possible to delete the individual entries, add up all the lengths and insert one entry.

Note, the RPA is saying that the RLE1 does not form part of the BPS or CS application and therefore claimants should make sure in the first instance their application is submitted on time, is accurate and reflects what is on the ground.  RLE1s and sketch maps can then be completed and returned to the RPA by 6th July.  But, in practice it is often easier to complete sketch maps at the time of making an application.

 

2017 BPS Payment Update

Bridging Payments are due to start being made on 4th April and will arrive in bank accounts from 6th.  Readers will recall that all those who have not received a 2017 BPS payment in England by the end of March 2018 will receive an interim payment.  The amount will be 75% of the estimated full payment.  However, if land and entitlements are incorrect at the time the calculation is made the payment might not be the amount expected.  The RPA has been sending out emails (or letters if an email is not registered) to all those affected from the 26th March.  However full payments are still being made, so it may be possible to receive a bridging payment letter but be paid in full, before the end of March.

2018 Guidance

The RPA is already on Version 3 of the Basic Payment Scheme rules for 2018.  The latest version can be found on Gov. UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/693100/BPS_2018_scheme_rules_v3.0.pdf

The new version amends the entitlement usage examples on pages 30 and 31.  Already amended in Version 2 was a diagram on Page 44 and the Section starting on Page 57, where a duplicated paragraph and diagram on Pages 57 and 58 have been amended with the correct ones.

New Hedge Layer

It appears that the new Hedge Layer has a lot of inaccuracies.  The RPA is due to be sending out some updated guidance on how to deal with these issues.  Only hedges that are being used for EFAs need to be mapped correctly.  Currently where an EFA hedge is not mapped correctly the only way to correct this is for an RLE1 and map to be submitted to update the data, if this situation changes we will inform readers.  The RPA is being pressed to alter the rules.   In some cases hedges, have been pre-populated in the Land Use section (in addition to being on the Land Viewer).  This is largely where they have been used for EFA in previous years (although there are some inconsistencies).  Where an EFA hedge is incorrectly pre-populated in the Land Use section it is possible to change the length.  Also note you do not have to have an individual line for each component part of the hedge, it is possible to add all the lengths together and input as one length.  But if the length does not agree with the digital maps on the Land Viewer, an RLE1 and map must be submitted.

The 2018 BPS application window in England is now open.

Guidance

All the scheme guidance, forms and continuation booklets can be found on the dedicated BPS 2018 page on Gov.UK at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bps-2018?dm_i=4G3E,75XJ,330Y6P,RWC4,1  this includes:

• Basic Payment Scheme : rules for 2018
• BPS Key dates 2018
• BPS Land use codes
• Greening workbook for 2018
• Winter varieties of Brassica crops
• Young and New Farmer form
• Guide to Cross Compliance 2018
• RLE1 form and guidance
• Digital mapping updates – explained
• Continuation booklets for Parts C, D & E

There is also guidance on how to make an online claim, including a checklist and troubleshooting questions.

Help on how to make a paper application is also available.  Paper forms are due to be sent out about a week later and therefore should be with claimants by the end of March.  They will only be sent to those who applied on paper in 2017 and do not have an agent ‘registered’ to them on the Rural Payments System.  To ‘switch’ from paper to online, contact the RPA helpline on 03000 200 301.

Drop-in Centres

Drop-in centres will once again be available at six sites: Carlisle, Exeter, Newcastle, Reading, Workington and York.  They will be open from 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) from 1st May until 15th May.  Currently there are no plans to open weekends or late nights.

Hedge Layer

As previously reported there is a new Hedge Layer.  This can be found in each individual land parcel information in the View Land section.  In each individual land parcel map there is now a ‘hedges’ tab next to the ‘map’ and ‘photo’ tabs.  If the hedges tab is clicked, the hedges are marked in a blue/grey colour.  Below the parcel land cover information are details on each hedgerow for the field.  If you click on this, the corresponding hedge is highlighted in purple.  Similarly if you click on the hedge on the map, the corresponding hedge information is highlighted in the list.  The details contain the length of the hedge and whether it is eligible for EFA or not.  To change the hedge information an RLE1 and map will need to submitted.

The measuring tool is also back for 2018 and is available on the View Land screen (same as the Hedge Layer) as it was in 2016.

Amending a Land Cover

If you wish to change a Land Cover (i.e. Permanent Grassland, Arable, Permanent Crops or non-agricultural) it maybe possible to use a new telephone route.  This could be beneficial where there has been an incorrect PLCD mapping update.  This route is only possible where there is just one land cover in the field parcel and all of it needs changing to a different one.  If this is the case it should be possible to contact the RPA on 03000 200 301 and request the change, for all other amendments (i.e. more than one land cover, split field) where a map will be required, an RLE1 will need to be submitted.

Nitrogen Fixing Crops

The online system automatically assumes that NFC will be used for EFA.  If PPPs have been applied to NFC and they are not being used to meet EFA requirements this will have to be amended.  This is a similar process to when fallow is only being used to satisfy Crop Diversification requirements and not being used for EFAs.  In both cases claimants need to go to ‘Applications’, ‘Make changes to your application’ and click on ‘Use less EFA than available’.

Active Farmer

Although the Active Farmer rules no longer apply and the negative list and readmission routes are no longer relevant in England, the decision was made too late to change the Rural Payments Online system.  This means that all applicants will still need to complete the Active Farmer declaration, but whatever their situation, everybody ‘ticks’ the option ‘No – I qualify as an Active Farmer.

 

 

As written previously, the 2018 BPS application window will not open until mid-March; no definite date has yet been announced.  This means that there will be a couple of weeks less than last year to complete applications, when in many cases, due to the PLCD mapping update, there will be more work to undertake.  But the Land Use screens have now been ‘turned on’ and, whilst applicants will not be able to print out a pdf summary ‘form’ or actually apply for their BPS for another month, it is now possible to check online maps and the pre-populated  land use data.  The land use can be amended now and therefore an application can start to be built.  The land use should reflect the correct position on the ground as at 15th May 2018.  There are some warnings though.

The reason the application window has been delayed is because the RPA is currently undertaking the 2018 PLCD mapping changes.  The number of fields remapped is far lower than under the 2017 task (150,000 compared to 1.6m) and these should all be done by March.  This will ensure no updates will be made whilst the application window is open and the mapping data will be stable.  But it does mean there is a small chance that some fields may be updated between now and Mid-March.  If land use is updated during this period, undeclared or over declared warnings may appear.

Secondly, the Land Use screen has been made available to coincide with the opening of the Countryside Stewardship online ‘Arable’ offer (see separate article).  For 2018 onwards, it is important to remember that the data in the land use section will not just be used for BPS claims it will also be used for CS applications and to validate claims.  As previously written, the land use should reflect what is on the ground on 15th May, which also needs to be compatible with any CS applications or claims for existing agreements.  Note, if a Land Use Code is changed after an online CS arable ‘offer’ has been submitted, the land parcel will automatically be removed from the CS application.  It is perhaps prudent to update the land use for the BPS 2018 application first and then look towards making a CS online ‘arable’ offer.  Also beware when one person makes the BPS claim and another the CS claim, or where there is a Dual Use situation (i.e where the Landlord makes a CS application and the Tenant the BPS); both may be editing the land use table.

The RPA’s Chief Executive, Paul Caldwell, has announced that BPS applications in England will not now open until ‘mid March’.  It was thought that the Rural Payments system would allow claims to be made from the start of March.  This squeezes the workload, particularly of Agents who have numerous applications, into a tighter window.  This is especially unfortunate as, this year, each application may well take longer due to the need to un-pick incorrect changes from the Proactive Land Change Detection (PLCD) process (i.e. remapping).  However, it seems that the Land Use table on Rural Payments will become available from around the 20th February.  This is to allow the Arable Option under the new Streamlined Countryside Stewardship strand to be opened.  With this functionality, claimants will at least be able to start building their BPS applications by checking field areas and eligibility, and entering crop codes.  However, it will not be possible to generate or submit an application or produce a summary of the claim until the mid-March date.

Rural Economy Secretary, Fergus Ewing, has announced the 2017 BPS Loan Scheme will close on 9th February.  So far 13,000 farmers and crofters have applied, but there are around a further 4,500 who have yet to apply.  The loan is worth about 80% of their anticipated 2017 payment.

The Farm Minister, George Eustice, has announced that bridging payments will be made available to those in England who have not received a BPS payment by the end of March.  A payment of 75% of the estimated 2017 BPS will be made in April.  Although a welcome step, any claimants receiving a payment in (late?) April, for three-quarters of the expected amount, and four months after most people have received payment, could still consider themselves hard done by.  Hopefully, those claims still to be paid will continue to be processed through February and March – resulting in earlier and full payment.  However, the rate of progress in resolving claims seems to have slowed – perhaps indicating RPA resources have been moved elsewhere now the end-December payment target has been hit.  It has been announced that as at the 26th January, 93% of claimants had been paid.  This is only 2% more than the figure at the 31st December.