Entitlement error will lead to BPS adjustments

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has admitted that a “handful” of claimants under the Basic Payment Scheme will need to have their payments adjusted as a result of errors with entitlement transfers.

It has emerged that a small number of payments have been approved, where entitlement transfers had not been correctly processed.

The errors have been identified during a routine “reconciliation” process carried out by the RPA.

See also: Read the latest stories on the Basic Payment Scheme

It means that affected claimants will have been subject either to an over- or an underpayment, which will need to be rectified by the RPA. However, it is understood that less than 20 businesses should be affected.

Tony Rimmer, director at land agents Rostons, said there appeared to be some claimants who had not yet received confirmation of an entitlement transfer, but had been paid their BPS.

He was carefully checking the amount paid to clients in accordance with the RPA’s remittance advice.

“Payments this year are less than in previous years, however we need to ensure that if any under- or overpayments are made these are reported to the RPA to ensure correction as soon as possible.”

An RPA spokesman said: “By 8 December we had paid over 41% of eligible claims. That’s more than 36,000 accurate payments made into bank accounts and we’re on track to pay the majority by the end of December.

“We’re processing the few remaining transfers our routine reconciliation work identified.”