Last night as only a few hours remained until the midnight Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) deadline for claiming without penalties, 80,000 claims had been received by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).
Many drop-in centres remained open until midnight but those farmers who had not submitted their forms before the deadline are now urged to take them directly to one of the RPA’s drop in centres as soon as possible. Late claim penalties now apply up to midnight 10 July so getting a claim in quickly means a smaller penalty.
Farmers can find their local drop-in centre and opening times on GOV.UK by searching ‘find help to claim rural payments’ or use this link https://www.gov.uk/find-help-to-claim-rural-payments.
Farmers and agents who have already posted their forms can check it has been received using an automated service. To access this service just call the Rural Payments helpline on 03000 200 301 and have your SBI ready. The helpline will be open to help with queries from 7am-6pm Monday – Friday this week.