More than 76,500 (91%) of farmers in England received their 2017 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) money by the end of December.
RPA Chief Executive Paul Caldwell said:
We understand how important BPS payments are to farmers and their businesses. That’s why RPA staff have worked really hard to get money into bank accounts in the first month of the payment window, injecting just over £1.45 billion into the farming and wider rural economy. I’m very grateful to them for all their work so far.
We know there are still farmers waiting for payments and will make them as soon as we can. This month we will communicate directly with those farmers who are still to be paid to help them plan.
BPS payments are made direct to bank accounts so farmers should make sure RPA has the most up-to-date account details. Once a payment has been made a remittance advice is sent in the post, confirming the amount paid. A claim statement will also be sent to explain how payments have been worked out.
More information on BPS 2017, including scheme rules and details of how payments are calculated, is available at GOV.UK/rpa/bps2017.
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