The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) confirmed today (Tuesday 6
December) that 95.3% of farmers have already received full
payments in the first few days of the payment window. This means
that £872m has been released into the rural economy to build on
the earlier payments which farmers received in July and August.
Over 102,000 payments have been made, bringing the total paid to
farmers to £1.528bn, across the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS),
Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES)
schemes which support farmers to achieve certain standards and
deliver environmental outcomes in a range of habitats. Eligible
farmers should expect to receive their payment within the payment
window which opened on 1 December and ends on 30 June 2023.
As announced in May 2022,
customers claiming Direct Payments have received two separate
payments this year, with the first made from the end of July 2022
and completed by August 2022.
This was in response to the cost pressures faced by farmers
caused by global gas prices rising and Putin’s illegal war in
Ukraine, and to boost cash flow for many businesses during this
uncertain period.
RPA Chief Executive Paul Caldwell said:
This has been a year of unprecedented challenges for our farmers
and rural businesses, which is why the RPA has been working hard
to make payments as quickly as possible – both in July and in the
current payment window.
We know how important these payments are to farmers and the wider
economy, so will continue to work hard to process any remaining
claims as quickly as possible.
The RPA recently published a blog on BPS 2022 payments to remind
farmers about the changes to payments from this year: Basic
Payment Scheme: December 2022 Payments - Rural payments
(blog.gov.uk).
