Who's in the 10% club?

[Guy Smith]

Think isn't good enough @Guy Smith !

As some who was in the 8000 not paid until June last year I understand your frustration - but don't blame the messenger!

We've been voicing our concern about the time taken to pay the last 5% for some time - such as here

http://www.nfuonline.com/cross-sector/farm-business/bps/bps-news/bps-blog-ghettoes-of-the-unpaid/

Like you, when the Secretary of State said at conference that those not paid by the end of March would get 75% bridging payments I assumed she meant the bridging payments would be paid by then. We since learnt she meant they would be paid in April.

We will hopefully be a lot wiser by the end of next week.

 

[Sid]

As some who was in the 8000 not paid until June last year I understand your frustration - but don't blame the messenger!

We've been voicing our concern about the time taken to pay the last 5% for some time - such as here

http://www.nfuonline.com/cross-sector/farm-business/bps/bps-news/bps-blog-ghettoes-of-the-unpaid/

Like you, when the Secretary of State said at conference that those not paid by the end of March would get 75% bridging payments I assumed she meant the bridging payments would be paid by then. We since learnt she meant they would be paid in April.

We will hopefully be a lot wiser by the end of next week.

Well they should have told you that. I know you are only the messenger but you would hope the RPA would be less economical with the truth

Edit frustration when i only extended my overdraft until march because of what i understood to be correct

 

[Surgery]

when will they be Liable for interest on the late payments , I would be also pushing for fines on top

 

[Sid]

when will they be Liable for interest on the late payments , I would be also pushing for fines on top

I paid my tax with a deferred payment end of march because I believed them as well.

 

[fieldfarmer]

Well the rpa bloke who was here inspecting my farm (16 claim ) last week took the weekend off and was back again Monday morning so the mapping and inspection aren't working 7 days a week.

 

[Guy Smith]

I've just had a private conversation with a TFFer who has said my language is dissapointingly vague starting with 'we think they might.....'

Just to be clear, we don't know this will happen nor have we been told it will. I'm just basing a judgement on member feedback and previous experience. We think there is about 3000 out there still unpaid and judging by the changes in status we are hearing about and the fact in the past the RPA usually ramp things up just before a trigger date such as 'end of March' we think about half of the 3000 might get payments next week leaving half needing the announced 75% bridging payment.

But as always with BPS, until we see money in accounts we can't be sure.

 

[Jerry]

Moved to preparing payment this afternoon.......things are finally moving!!!

 

[Adeptandy]

....also gone to ......Preparing for Payment......will be happy when it lands, and hopefully without issues, tempted to download the summary and have a look, but don't know if I want to know on a Friday evening

 

[Jerry]

....also gone to ......Preparing for Payment......will be happy when it lands, and hopefully without issues, tempted to download the summary and have a look, but don't know if I want to know on a Friday evening

Ditto, not looking till Monday, just hope it is not the 75% payment! Mind you I bet its wrong as last years is not complete yet!

 

[Fivedoors]

Yesterday was in the 75% payment club according to a letter today Friday 30 March full payment letter arrived as usual unbelievable management

 

[gone up the hill]

Well they should have told you that. I know you are only the messenger but you would hope the RPA would be less economical with the truth

Edit frustration when i only extended my overdraft until march because of what i understood to be correct

What surprises me is that the NFU actually believe everything the RPA tell them and fail to challenge any of it.

 

[matthew]

What surprises me is that the NFU actually believe everything the RPA tell them and fail to challenge any of it.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me for believing.

 

[Guy Smith]

The NFU is the only organisation that does properly undertaken extensive survey work of farmers to get an independent check of what is happening on the ground with BPS. The surveys we've done never show any huge discrepancy between the numbers of people paid and the number the RPA say have been paid. However the surveys have shown up things like the fact a large number of farmers feel they haven't been paid the correct amount. We've then taken this to DEFRA and the RPA as evidence of a problem.

More generally - I very much doubt the RPA are in the business of deliberately making things up. Their work is extensively audited by the European Court of auditors and their figures are laid before the UK parliament in the form of ministerial statements. Deliberately lying to parliament is a very serious issue.

The RPA used to post on here and I used to find that quite useful but if posters on here are going to start calling them liars then I'm not surprised they don't bother any more.

 

[gone up the hill]

The NFU is the only organisation that does properly undertaken extensive survey work of farmers to get an independent check of what is happening on the ground with BPS. The surveys we've done never show any huge discrepancy between the numbers of people paid and the number the RPA say have been paid. However the surveys have shown up things like the fact a large number of farmers feel they haven't been paid the correct amount. We've then taken this to DEFRA and the RPA as evidence of a problem.

More generally - I very much doubt the RPA are in the business of deliberately making things up. Their work is extensively audited by the European Court of auditors and their figures are laid before the UK parliament in the form of ministerial statements. Deliberately lying to parliament is a very serious issue.

The RPA used to post on here and I used to find that quite useful but if posters on here are going to start calling them liars then I'm not surprised they don't bother any more.

Guy, it became very clear last year that the figures ( for the % paid 2015 claims ) the RPA gave and what your own survey work returned were like chalk and cheese and this year is no different, everywhere you go there are people that still haven't been paid anything for 2016, if you add all these up across the country then it appears that its a lot more than the RPA is claiming it is.

Have you forgotten Jan 2016 when the RPA said they would pay a certain % of claimants by the end of this month? only for it to become very clear that this wasn't the case and then on the last day of Jan which was a Sunday they sent out thousands of emails telling people that they wouldn't be paid for several weeks even thou they had promised them they would have been paid by the end of Jan!

Then the part payments fiasco, RPA said they couldn't do it then time and time again ( even thou it was clear they could ) cue presto a few weeks before the brexit vote they suddenly changed their minds, the list goes on and on.( and now of course you have got the issue that they didn't mean the end of March 2017 but sometime in April )

Thousands of people that have been paid their 2016 claims have been incorrectly paid due to RPA mistakes in processing their forms, when are these claiments likely to see the balance of their payments?

You would be better off Guy spending less time in meetings and more time actually meeting working farmers to get a real feel for what is going on.

..................................................

And as an aside your Brexit policy drafts are full of far too much corporate double speak, far too complicated/mixed messages/ doesn't present a clear message on what the NFU's aims/ goals are, NFU need to go back to the drawing board, your making the issue of future farm support a lot more complicated than it ever should be, I hate to say it but having a lawyer heading up your Brexit team was not a good idea!

 

[matthew]

In our case errors in 2015 claim maps by RPA were first denied, then lied about (as in telling an untruth about the source of the error) And finally when evidence was produced to refute such misinformation/ lies, paid within a day. My gripe is that it appears that a different department of RPA is handling 2016 claims and the 2015 (now corrected) error has not been amended. Neither have we received payment for the missing land parcel in 2016 claim. And thus the compound 2015 error / lie now appears on our 2017 forms. Despite letters to RPA from me and our MP, and phone calls from them which promised action. Meaningless guff. Lies.

When '50 per cent payments' were offered by RPA, it wasn't until they started fluttering into farmers' bank accounts that their real weasel meaning became clear. And far from being 50 per cent of the total claim, they were 50 per cent of the amount of claim cleared for payment by RPA staff at the time. That was subtle for sure. Misleading? definitely. A lie? Just about, as that same '50 per cent' message was offered to FCN staff, to MPs and to the EFRA committee.

 

[Surgery]

I wonder what would happen if anyone with shares with dividends were fobbed off the dividend by months of incompetence , I bet it would become quite serious quickly.

 

[matthew]

I wonder what would happen if anyone with shares with dividends were fobbed off the dividend by months of incompetence , I bet it would become quite serious quickly.

Directors held accountable.
Bankruptcy.

 

[D14]

Paid yesterday with a 4% deduction/fine but no paperwork whatsoever explaining why. Agent saying we can't submit 2017 claim because we need to correct whatever the error was on last years which has caused the deduction.

 

[Surgery]

Paid yesterday with a 4% deduction/fine but no paperwork whatsoever explaining why. Agent saying we can't submit 2017 claim because we need to correct whatever the error was on last years which has caused the deduction.

They are good seriously NFU really do need to get some kind of legal action in place against the RPA , they are effecting a lot of businesses that cannot afford to be feked about. If this were a pensions scheme or alike action would have been swift and hard and the money being wasted by delays and errors is truly unexceptale.

 

[Hesston4860s]

Well it's been 3 weeks since my official complaint was sent and I've not heard a thing !.