Single Farm Payment Update
January 12th, 2009
The Rural Payments Agency are now issuing payments in respect of the 2008 Single Farm Payment Scheme following the opening of the payment window on 1st December 2008. The RPA are sending out Claim Statements and Remittance Advice following which payments should be paid.
2008 Payments
In June Hilary Benn set the RPA payment targets for 75%, by value, of valid 2008 SPS claims to be paid by 31st January 2009 and 90%, by value, by 31st March 2009. The RPA confirmed that as of 31st December 2008 they had made payments totaling in excess of £960 million to approximately 70,000 customers which represents 59% of the available fund paid to 65% of claimants. However there are still problems affecting 2005, 2006 and 2007 entitlements and claims which are yet to be resolved.
2008 SPS Exchange Rate
The RPA confirmed that the exchange rate applicable to the 2008 SPS payments has been set at €1 = £0.79030 (2007 exchange rate was €1 = £0.69680) – a 13.4% improvement on the Sterling value.
2008 SPS Entitlement Value
Entitlements consist of the regional flat rate element which is re valued each year and, if applicable, the historic element which takes into account any subsidies claimed prior to the SFP being set up, and which reduced in value each year.
The proportion of these elements change each year. The value of your 2008 entitlements consist of 45% of the regional flat rate and 55% of the historic element. If your entitlements do not have an historic element their value consists 100% of the regional flat rate which has been revalued for 2008 at the following levels:
|
|
2008 Values |
2007 Values |
|
Non-SDA |
€141.93 (£112.17) |
€95.13 (£66.28) |
|
Upland SDA |
€116.21 (£91.84) |
€76.98 (£53.63) |
|
Upland SDA moorland |
€20.53 (£16.22) |
€13.40 (£9.33) |
Entitlement Statements
The RPA are intending to commence sending out the statements detailing the number and value of entitlements for the 2009 scheme year during January 2009 and it is hoped that the issues seen with the 2007 entitlement statements including loss of historic value elements, national reserve awards and fictitious entitlement transfers will be avoided. It is important to check that the statement is correct as this will form the basis of the 2009 claim.
BACS Payments
As of the 16th October 2008 the RPA cannot make any payments by cheque. All payments now made by the RPA can only be made directly into your bank account via BACS. Therefore it should be ensured that the RPA holds your correct bank account details.
National Reserve Entitlements
On the 1st January 2009 all entitlements obtained through the national reserve became normal entitlements and therefore are available to be traded as normal entitlements.
Transfer of Entitlements
The deadline for the RPA to receive the relevant forms for the transfer of entitlements is 2nd April 2009. If you are considering transferring entitlements in or out then please do not hesitate to contact us. The completion of the transfer forms has become unnecessarily complicated due to the manner in which the RPA is interpreting the regulations.
2009 SPS – Set-aside entitlements
The obligation to manage land in accordance with the set-aside requirements was suspended for the 2008 scheme year and as of 1st January 2009 has been abolished. Therefore set-aside entitlements have become normal entitlements, their values being set at the regional flat rate. It is likely that the RPA will continue to refer to these entitlements by their old set-aside labels on pre-populated correspondence sent during the Spring of 2009 as it may take sometime for them to update their system.
What Might Follow Set-aside?
As set aside has been abolished DEFRA is anxious to mitigate any potential environmental consequences that may arise throughout England. Although no formal plans have been released it is likely that DEFRA and Natural England will work together to prepare these measures under the label of ‘environmental management’ which may see an increase in the number of cross compliance conditions.
Please contact us for further information or assistance on any of the matters detailed above.