News story: Environment Secretary announces bridging payments for Basic Payment Scheme 2016

Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom has secured bridging payments for farmers awaiting their full BPS payment for 2016, to ease their financial cash flow.

To date BPS payments worth £1.52 billion have been made to more than 82,000 (95.5%) farmers in England. These include payments on a range of claim types and sizes, including cross-border, young farmer, those inspected and common land claims.

Any eligible farmer who has not received their full payment for 2016 by the end of March will be offered a bridging payment for 75% of their claim value.

Speaking at the 2017 NFU Conference, Andrea Leadsom said:

As of today 95.5% of farmers have received their 2016 basic payment, but I recognise that if you’re one of the 4,000 still waiting – you need to know when you will get paid.

So this week I secured agreement from the Treasury to offer a 75% bridging payment to anyone with outstanding payments by the end of March.

The Rural Payments Agency remains focused on paying the remainder of eligible claims as promptly as possible.