BPS 2016 in Bank

[fieldfarmer]

Me neither nor 2 of my neighbours yet rpa claim to have exceeded their 90% paid.

 

[Hesston4860s]

Claim abandoned.
I have no clue on how to sort it out, and I neither have the funds or the inclination to pay out more money for someone else to do it when my claim may still fail.

 

[fieldfarmer]

Could you perhaps put a few details on here if you wish , maybe if we all know a little bit you might be able to learn a lot. I think you may have mentioned that you had to prove a scheme had finished, if this was paid annually then would a last payment on a bank statement at a certain date then not repeated 12 months later prove the end of the agreement.

 

[Chonk]

After having a blank status box in December things are looking up ... a box has been ticked, that was missed in translation somewhere, an email sent in December to the rpa has been answered and payment details , which the agent missed to pass on , have been given.
Help line staff seemed knowledgeable and helpful with our problems and now we are "payment pending" within a couple of weeks apparently
Big relief !

 

[Hesston4860s]

Could you perhaps put a few details on here if you wish , maybe if we all know a little bit you might be able to learn a lot. I think you may have mentioned that you had to prove a scheme had finished, if this was paid annually then would a last payment on a bank statement at a certain date then not repeated 12 months later prove the end of the agreement.

My land is all growing poplar trees that where planted under a WGS (woodland grant scheme) which lasts for 15 years on 2 fields and 10 years on the other 1 (I only have 3 fields).
All the schemes have finished and I receive no money from them (haven't done for 3 years or so now), the RPA are saying that there computer system says that there are active grants on my land and the last field planted doesn't come out of the WGS till 2030. This contradicts what my paperwork says that all schemes have infact ended so there is no danger of double funding.

I am now of the opinion that the info I was given back in April 2015 from the RPA about claiming on my land was potentially incorrect and I should never have been told to claim.
Unfortunately I was told I was eligible to claim twice and they also told my agent the same, we where told to claim as permanent crops coded as short rotation coppice.
So that's what was done and getting my claim sorted out and buying entitlements cost me over £2500 for 2015, and then some more money for my 2016 claim.

All told I'm about £3k into this, money I couldn't really afford to spend on it but should of got back though my claim.

I'll now just have to write that off and carry on best I can.

 

[Bob]

If the poplar trees have been planted using the WGS it surely cannot be classed as short rotational coppice for BPS !! The WGS will still apply to your land if it was grant funded after your capital management payments have stopped.

It sound like you have been given some bad advice

 

[Hesston4860s]

It sound like you have been given some bad advice

Three thousands pounds worth of it !.

This is why I rang the helpline twice to make sure the info I was given was correct, and then upon speaking to my agent they also rang the helpline to make absolutely certain.
I don't really see how we could of done any more, who else better would there have been to speak too other than the people operating the scheme !.

 

[Courier]

"Aah, but we couldn't possibly tell you the rules we apply to paying out (then drainage grants)" .
Was what I was told in 1977 !!

 

[Try to succeed]

Still waiting...

 

[fieldfarmer]

Still waiting

 

[Jerry]

Ditto

 

[fieldfarmer]

All though not good it is reassuring to know we are not alone, two neighbours here as well still not paid, seems a lot of people in the 10% club.

 

[Try to succeed]

All though not good it is reassuring to know we are not alone, two neighbours here as well still not paid, seems a lot of people in the 10% club.

It's one of those "big 10%'s"

 

[AlfM]

5 claims within 2 miles not paid around here.

 

[Bob]

My Bank manager reckons around a third of his clients have not received their payment. Most are probably larger than average sized farms.

Still waiting here

 

[Hesston4860s]

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/got-a-question-about-bps-2015.56564/page-2

Post no 30

The reason I rang the RPA to find out if I was eligible, told I was and to use short rotation coppice code SR01.

 

[GOODYSMATE]

Still not paid here yet , neighbours that I now have been paid . Is it tomorrow the 16th that we should receive a letter from RPA

 

[fieldfarmer]

I read somewhere that we would be contacted on the 16th to say if we were n't to be paid this month but now told we will be told by the end of jan if we won't be paid in jan. So they might tell us on the last day of the month that we won't be paid in jan , what's the point.

 

[Fowler VF]

My land is all growing poplar trees that where planted under a WGS (woodland grant scheme) which lasts for 15 years on 2 fields and 10 years on the other 1 (I only have 3 fields).
All the schemes have finished and I receive no money from them (haven't done for 3 years or so now), the RPA are saying that there computer system says that there are active grants on my land and the last field planted doesn't come out of the WGS till 2030. This contradicts what my paperwork says that all schemes have infact ended so there is no danger of double funding.

I am now of the opinion that the info I was given back in April 2015 from the RPA about claiming on my land was potentially incorrect and I should never have been told to claim.
Unfortunately I was told I was eligible to claim twice and they also told my agent the same, we where told to claim as permanent crops coded as short rotation coppice.
So that's what was done and getting my claim sorted out and buying entitlements cost me over £2500 for 2015, and then some more money for my 2016 claim.

All told I'm about £3k into this, money I couldn't really afford to spend on it but should of got back though my claim.

I'll now just have to write that off and carry on best I can.

You are definitely eligible, with one proviso, you must have been claiming under SFP from 2008 onwards as land use code SA2 I have gone through the same thing exactly. My 2015 claim hasn't been settled, but the identical 2016 claim has come through in full.

Two things; even though the payments on your WGS have ended the agreement will be longer than that, usually 30 years. RPA Guidelines make this very clear. The WGS land should have gone in as SA2 under SFP and then as land use code RD 01 on your BPS forms; see RPA guidance below:

Claiming BPS on land in agri-environment and woodland schemes


Land used in an agri-environment scheme can still be eligible for BPS, depending on the management of options involved.


Some management options require that the land is taken out of agricultural use. Normally, this would mean it’s not eligible for BPS because it is no longer ‘agricultural’ land that is being used for an ‘agricultural activity’. However, this land is eligible for BPS if both of the following apply:

• it was used with entitlements to claim under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in 2008, and
  
• it’s used for one of the options below, or is declared under the National Forest Changing Landscape scheme

The land is only eligible for BPS for as long as it remains in one of the options listed below. Typically, this land would have been declared under land use code ‘SA2’ or ‘SA3’ under SPS.





Farm Woodland Premium Scheme and Farm Woodland Scheme Land under these codes is eligible for BPS if it was used with entitlements to claim SPS in 2008 and is still in the woodland scheme

You have also put your poplars down as being Short Rotation Coppice. This confuses RPA, especially if they check with Forestry Commission. I did this for some of my fields by mistake as well. This wasn't the reason they didn't pay the 2015 claim, they didn't even pay the ones that I correctly used RD01 either. That was quite simply that the pre -print forms showed previous use as "permanent woodland" not SA2, even though I changed the forms and sent in an explanatory note they ignored it. Where you have used SRC as use you are probably technically correct by RPA guidelines, timber species poplar with a harvest interval of less than 20 years. But Forestry Commission regard SRC as being 5 year or less harvest interval and didn't allow this use under WGS or FWPS grants, hence the confusion. I had a visit from FC (sent by RPA) who agreed that my poplars were still eligible and also met RPA definition of SRC because I am cutting logs out of them at less than 20 year harvest cycles.

The fact that FC have backed me up, and RPA have paid 2016 in full makes me very hopeful that the 2015 payment will follow on in due course, and that they will remove the penalties they gave me for "over-claiming".

DO NOT GIVE UP; YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT!!!

 

[Hesston4860s]

You are definitely eligible, with one proviso, you must have been claiming under SFP from 2008 onwards as land use code SA2 I have gone through the same thing exactly. My 2015 claim hasn't been settled, but the identical 2016 claim has come through in full.

Two things; even though the payments on your WGS have ended the agreement will be longer than that, usually 30 years. RPA Guidelines make this very clear. The WGS land should have gone in as SA2 under SFP and then as land use code RD 01 on your BPS forms; see RPA guidance below:

Claiming BPS on land in agri-environment and woodland schemes


Land used in an agri-environment scheme can still be eligible for BPS, depending on the management of options involved.


Some management options require that the land is taken out of agricultural use. Normally, this would mean it’s not eligible for BPS because it is no longer ‘agricultural’ land that is being used for an ‘agricultural activity’. However, this land is eligible for BPS if both of the following apply:

• it was used with entitlements to claim under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in 2008, and
• it’s used for one of the options below, or is declared under the National Forest Changing Landscape scheme

The land is only eligible for BPS for as long as it remains in one of the options listed below. Typically, this land would have been declared under land use code ‘SA2’ or ‘SA3’ under SPS.





Farm Woodland Premium Scheme and Farm Woodland Scheme Land under these codes is eligible for BPS if it was used with entitlements to claim SPS in 2008 and is still in the woodland scheme

You have also put your poplars down as being Short Rotation Coppice. This confuses RPA, especially if they check with Forestry Commission. I did this for some of my fields by mistake as well. This wasn't the reason they didn't pay the 2015 claim, they didn't even pay the ones that I correctly used RD01 either. That was quite simply that the pre -print forms showed previous use as "permanent woodland" not SA2, even though I changed the forms and sent in an explanatory note they ignored it. Where you have used SRC as use you are probably technically correct by RPA guidelines, timber species poplar with a harvest interval of less than 20 years. But Forestry Commission regard SRC as being 5 year or less harvest interval and didn't allow this use under WGS or FWPS grants, hence the confusion. I had a visit from FC (sent by RPA) who agreed that my poplars were still eligible and also met RPA definition of SRC because I am cutting logs out of them at less than 20 year harvest cycles.

The fact that FC have backed me up, and RPA have paid 2016 in full makes me very hopeful that the 2015 payment will follow on in due course, and that they will remove the penalties they gave me for "over-claiming".

DO NOT GIVE UP; YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT!!!

I think I have just figured out why the RPA are saying I have active grants which don't finish according to the letter I got this morning till 2021.
The reason they are saying that i think is because I was successor to the schemes in 2006/7 and I think they are using that date as the start date for my schemes and not the original contract dates when my late father took them out !.
I have spoken with the forestry commission this morning and they have confirmed my schemes have infact ended, someone is going to ring me weds to hopefully get it in writing to send to the RPA.

Who did you speak to at the FC as I keep getting passed around, even tho all the people I speak to confirm the contracts have ended I need a letter which thy say you need to speak to so n so for that !.