As one Defra agency appears to be finally learning the painful lessons of IT rollouts gone wrong, another seems to have walked into the same trap. Single Farm Payment window opens
MORE than 84 per cent of Welsh farmers received Single Farm Payments totalling over £205 million on Tuesday, as the EU payment window opened.
This surpassed last year’s figure and is in addition to the 258 advance payments worth about £5 million paid out in mid October to farmers affected by the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain.
Speaking at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair, rural affairs Minister, Elin Jones, said she expected more than 90 per cent of Welsh farmers to have received their payments by the end of December.
“The payout demonstrates the commitment and dedication of staff in Rural Payments Wales to helping farmers in these difficult economic times,” she said.
In Scotland, almost 14,000 farmers, around 75 per cent of eligible claimants, will receive Single Payments worth over £400m this week.
By the end of December, around 20,000 farmers, 90 per cent of claimants, will have been paid £460m, the Scottish Government is predicting.
In England, the Rural Payments Agency is expecting to improve on last year’s performance when 69,000 farmers, around 60 per cent of claimants were paid nearly £1 billion by the end of December.
The agency said it was working towards meeting its formal targets of making 75 per cent of payments, by value, by the end of January and 90 per cent by the end of March.
Scottish rural affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead contrasted the speed of payments north and south of the border.
“These payments are always vital but never more so than in tough economic times. Our payment timetable is ahead of the UK Government’s, meaning Scottish farmers will be reaping the benefits of their Single Farm Payments quicker than their counterparts in the south,” he said.
Farmers across the UK will receive a boost to payments of around 11 per cent because of the weakness of the pound relative to the euro.
Mr Lochhead said this had pushed the total value of payments to Scottish farmers up by £88m this year.
The EU payment window runs between December 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010.
Readers' comments (4)
SWALES | 1 December 2009 5:05 pm
In these difficult economic times ,how disgraceful it is to see the English payments being delivered so much slower than those in Scotland and Wales.It is time for an overhaul at the RPA,they are only interested in meeting mandatory targets rather than matching the payment timescales being achieved in Scotland and Wales,shame on you!!!!!
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ER Vines | 1 December 2009 6:13 pm
I completely endorse these comments about the disgraceful performance of the RPA and their indifference to their English
farmers. Any private sector firm would never survive following the revelations of incompetence and lethargy which abounds in Defra. The whole process should be privatised and the civil servants sent packing.
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Terry | 2 December 2009 11:04 am
It is mainly the rich, landed gentry who benefit from these taxes of workers. The Prince of Wales and the rest of the spongers. Give the money to the hill farmers and the smallholders and crofters. The rich have had quite enough.
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Anonymous | 2 December 2009 6:22 pm
Well done RPA for making payment to 86,500 which beats Scotland and Wales. It gives the English farmer something to smile about and makes the bank manger happy!
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