As of 25 February 2010 over 98,000 farmers from the estimated total claimant population of 107,500 have received a full Single Payment Scheme (SPS) payment from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). 90 per cent. of the estimated total fund of £1.86 billion has now been paid for SPS 2009.
Some 2,000 of the remaining claims have been processed and resulted in no payment being due. This situation arises where, for example, farmers hold entitlements for the wrong area type, have submitted duplicate claim forms or will receive payment from the devolved Administrations.
Processing now continues on approximately 7,500 claims where no payment has been made to date and RPA is working to finalise these as quickly as possible. Some of these are complex cases involving probate, business partnership changes and domestic issues. It is likely that work on these claims will reveal that some will not be eligible for payment. Claims which are confirmed will be paid as soon as possible.
The agency met its first 2009 SPS target of making 75 per cent. of full payments by value, six weeks ahead of its formal target date of the end of January 2010. It has now met the second of its formal targets of making 90 per cent. of full payments, by value, five weeks ahead of its formal date of the end of March 2010.
RPA is on track to meet its EU target of making 95.238 per cent. of payments by value by the close of the payment window on 30 June 2010.
The following table shows the agency continues to improve in making SPS payments.
Scheme year 75 per cent. of payments made by value 90 per cent. of payments made by value 2007 22 February 21 May 2008 22 January 16 March 2009 17 December 24 February
Processing continues on claims from all previous scheme years where no payment has been made to date and RPA is working to finalise these as quickly as practicable. The following table shows a summary of these claims.
Single Payment Scheme year Number of claims outstanding as at 10 March 2010 Number of claims not received full payment as at 10 March 2010 2005 3 574 2006 6 629 2007 33 55 2008 84 100 Total 1126 1,358 1 Included within the 126 outstanding claims are three (2005), five (2006), 29 (2007) and 64 (2008) claims that are complex cases involving probate, business partnership changes and domestic issues. It is likely that work on these claims will reveal that some will not be eligible for payment.
Claims which have not received a full payment may be due a top-up payment once their entitlements have been reviewed. Further such claims may arise from data correction work within the Rural Payments Agency.