The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has now issued all pre-populated BP5 application forms. Anyone who has not received their form, either by email or post, should contact the Rural Payments helpline on 03000 200 301. A form will then be printed out and posted within 48 hours.
The RPA has now received almost 8,500 completed applications.
Commons claimants get pre-populated forms
This week pre-populated forms are being sent out to 4,000 customers who are expected to claim BPS 2015 on common land. Anyone in this group should receive their forms in the next few days. Guidance for this specialist group of claimants can be found online at GOV.UK/rpa/bps with paper copies due to be sent out shortly.
Important note on claiming common land
Please check Part C of your application form carefully. If the RPA has included common land in Part C you should:
- remove any common land parcels from Part C, by putting an ‘X’ in column C9; and
- make sure all the common land grazing rights you want to claim BPS for are included in Part E of your application form.
Receipts
The RPA will be issuing receipts to applicants who have posted their BP5 forms. These will be sent out within 48 hours of a form being received.
Cross Border claiming – Wales and Northern Ireland deadline is 15 May
To ensure no-one misses out, the RPA is currently contacting all farmers with less than 5 hectares of agricultural land in England but who, the Agency believes, may have land in another part of the UK. This could mean that, in total, they have enough land to be eligible to claim BPS.
Cross border farmers are reminded they need to submit applications and supporting documents by midnight on the deadline set by the agency that is paying them. This means that if their paying agency is in Wales or Northern Ireland, all applications (to any of the four parts of the UK) must be received by them by midnight on 15 May 2015.
Mobile support units
Mobile support units will now be visiting the following agricultural markets to support farmers with their applications:
- 18 May – Ross on Wye, Herefordshire
- 18 & 27 May – Skipton, North Yorkshire
- 19 May – Tavistock, Devon
- 19-21 May – Isle of Wight
Further information is available on GOV.UK and more venues for the mobile support units will be announced soon.