Rural Payments Agency
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will replace the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England with delinked payments in 2024. The 2023 scheme year was the last year of BPS.
The delinked payments scheme rules are set out in new regulations which came into force on 1 January 2024.
You will not need any land or entitlements to receive delinked payments. You will not need to apply to receive delinked payments in 2024 or later years.
RPA will pay delinked payments each year from 2024 to 2027. The amount you receive will decrease each year as we apply progressive reductions. This is explained in How delinked payments are calculated. 2027 will be the last year of delinked payments.
Check if youre eligible for delinked payments
To receive delinked payments, you must:
- be eligible - this means you must have claimed, and been eligible for, BPS payments in England in the 2023 scheme year (except for some inherited land). Read the BPS rules for 2023 for information about eligibility for BPS
- have a reference amount
Your reference amount will normally be your average BPS payment in the reference period, which is the BPS 2020 to 2022 scheme years. If you did not claim BPS in the reference period, you will only have a reference amount if BPS reference data has been transferred to you.
So long as you are eligible for delinked payments, the value of your payments for 2024 to 2027 will not be affected if your farm size changes, or if you change what the land is used for, after BPS 2022 (the last year of the reference period).
You can receive delinked payments even if you choose to stop farming after the BPS 2023 application deadline (15 May 2023).
You will not be eligible for delinked payments if you have received a payment under the Lump Sum Exit Scheme.
How reference amounts are calculated
Your delinked payments will be based on a reference amount. We use your BPS 2020, 2021 and 2022 payment information as the reference data to calculate your reference amount.
Your reference amount will be the average of the BPS payments made to your business for these scheme years, including any young farmer payment or greening payment.
Your reference amount will be adjusted if:
- your BPS reference data is amended as a result of further RPA checks, such as following a BPS payment query or appeal you have submitted for any of the reference years, 2020, 2021 or 2022
- BPS reference data has been transferred to or from your business
We will add up your BPS payments for the 2020,2021 and2022 scheme years and divide by 3. We will divide by 3 even if no BPS payment was made to you in 1 or 2 of these 3 scheme years.
The reference data will take account of any reductions applied for over-claiming land.
The reference data will not take account of:
- over-claim penalties (which can be applied to BPS payments on top of over-claim reductions)
- reductions and penalties for not meeting the greening rules
- late application penalties
- penalties for not declaring all agricultural land parcels
- cross compliance penalties
- reductions to amounts above 150,000
- progressive reductions for BPS 2021 and BPS 2022
- amounts intercepted from your BPS 2020, 2021 or 2022 payments due to overpayments for other scheme years or other schemes
If you received a manual payment for BPS 2020, 2021 or 2022, this will be taken into account in your reference data.
If you also claimed BPS on entitlements in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, your reference amount will be based only on the part of your payment which relates to your English entitlements. Payment schemes in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland will operate under the rules set by the relevant UK administration.
Your delinked payments information statement
In November, or December, 2023 we sent a statement for you to check, showing your reference amount based on the reference data we held for you at that time. We will use your reference amount when we calculate your delinked payments each year, if you are eligible.
If you claimed BPS in any of the scheme years 2020, 2021 or 2022, but did not receive an information statement, please contact us to request one.
How delinked payments are calculated
We will apply progressive reductions when we calculate your delinked payments each year. This means the value of the delinked payments will become a smaller proportion of the reference amount each year.
Your delinked payment each year =
your reference amount - progressive reductions for that year
The progressive reductions work in payment bands, on a sliding scale. This means higher reductions will be applied to amounts in higher payment bands.
For 2024, we plan to reduce delinked payments by the percentages in the following table. These percentages will be set in new regulations, which are expected to come into force by the end of July, following parliamentary approval.
| Payment band | Reduction percentage applied to 2024 payment |
|---|---|
| 30,000 or less | 50 |
| Amounts above 30,000 and no more than 50,000 | 55 |
| Amounts above 50,000 and no more than 150,000 | 65 |
| Amounts above 150,000 | 70 |
For example, areference amount of 40,000 would have a 50% reduction applied to the first 30,000 of the payment (a reduction of 15,000). A 55% reduction would be applied to the next 10,000 (a reduction of 5,500). The payment would be reduced by 20,500 to 19,500.
Use the delinked payments calculator to see how progressive reductions may affect your payment for the 2024 scheme year. Different progressive reductions will be applied for years 2025 to 2027 as delinked payments are gradually phased out. These reductions have not been announced yet.
If BPS reference data was used to calculate a payment under the Lump Sum Exit Scheme, it cannot also be used to calculate a delinked payment. We will contact farmers who are affected by this.
Transferring land after the reference period
Your reference amount will not be affected if you transfer out some or all of your land after 16 May 2022 (the BPS 2022 deadline). For example, where your tenancy comes to an end and the land goes back to the landlord. You will still need to have claimed, and been eligible for, BPS 2023 to receive delinked payments.
If you transfer in land after 16 May 2022, this will not increase your reference amount.
Receiving delinked payments
You will not need to apply to receive delinked payments.
We plan to make delinked payments to eligible customers in 2 instalments each year - an advance payment of around 50% from 1 August with the balance payment from 1 December.
However, for 2024 delinked payments, the second instalment will now be made from September, rather than from December, to help farmers with their cashflow following the impact of wet weather.
ContactRPAby email or post as soon as possible if you do not want to receive delinked payments.
Overpayments
If we need to recover overpayments from you, we may add interest t