Submitting a payment query
From 1 January 2024, any BPS (Basic Payment Scheme payment related queries will be subjected to new deadlines. This is because BPS 2023 was the last year of the scheme.
The RPA circulated the following message in an email / letter to all BPS 2023 claimants explaining the impact these changes will have:
‘As the BPS is due to close at the end of December 2023, we want to advise you about new 60-day deadlines for farmers to query or appeal against decisions relating to their BPS payments. We are introducing these deadlines to make sure we can process all claims in good time and resolve all outstanding queries quickly.
‘They are supported by legislation which is due to come into force on 1 January 2024. The 60-day deadlines are measured from the “date of notification”, which is the date we email or write to you giving notification of a payment decision, as explained below.
‘For BPS payment decisions notified to you before 1 January 2024 but not queried with RPA before that date, the 60-day payment query period will be from 1 January to midnight on 29 February 2024. For BPS payment decisions notified to you on or after 1 January 2024, the 60-day payment query period will begin on the date RPA email or write to you giving notification of the payment decision.’
Appeals
The RPA has said there is also a further 60-day deadline for any appeal requests to be submitted: ‘If you are unhappy with the decision we’ve made about your payment query, you have a further 60 days from the date we advise you of our decision to submit your appeal.’
However, if you raised an appeal before 1 January 2024, then the new rules do not apply:
Where you have already raised a payment query and submitted an appeal against a payment decision before 1 Jan 2024, the RPA will continue to consider that appeal under existing rules.
The ‘date of notification’ [of a relevant decision as set below] can be the date the RPA sent you:
- a payment remittance
- a payment adjustment
- a response to a payment query, when we received the original payment query within 60 days of sending your payment remittance.
The process remains mainly the same, following the query form process as was the case in previous years. The new deadlines will affect all previous BPS payments:
To query a BPS payment you’ve received, use the ‘Basic Payment Scheme: payment query form’.
The new statutory deadlines apply to BPS for all years of the scheme and to the Young Farmer payment and greening payment. These deadlines also apply to any other BPS related decisions including those concerning cross compliance and the BPS data shown on the recent delinked payment information statements.
Impact on other schemes
The RPA has said ‘the complaints procedure for other schemes has not changed’.
The latest information on the complaints procedure can be found at: GOV.UK | Rural Payments Agency.
