The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has published updates to the guidance for delinked payments on GOV.UK.
For an overview of what delinked payments are and how to apply for them, you can read this introduction to delinked payments.
We originally published some initial guidance about delinked payments last year, following our consultation with farmers and stakeholders in 2021.
We have now updated the guidance using feedback we received from farmers and stakeholders.
What updates have been made?
The guidance contains more information. You can read it to check who will receive delinked payments, how they will be calculated and to see a high-level timeline by searching for ‘Delinked Payments’ on GOV.UK.
When developing the updated guidance, we took into account the feedback that we received from our stakeholders to make the process for receiving delinked payments as easy as possible. We have also been working closely with colleagues in Defra.
For example, following discussions with stakeholders, you will now be able to transfer some or all of your reference amount to one or more other business, giving you extra flexibility. This could apply if your business has merged or split, your Single Business Identifier (SBI) has changed, or you have passed some or all of your business to someone else since the start of the reference period, for example.
The business receiving the transferred reference amount will need to claim, and be eligible for, BPS 2023 in England to receive delinked payments.
We will create a transfer period for this in early 2024. Our guidance gives more information about transfers.
Next steps
- Read the guidance to check your eligibility for delinked payments
- Make sure that you have applied for BPS 2023. The deadline is 15 May 2023 for applications without penalty. The deadline for late BPS applications (with penalty) is 9 June 2023. You can check our key dates document to make sure you don’t miss important deadlines
- It will also be important to check your information statement which RPA will send you later in the year. This will show your reference amount based on the BPS 2020 to 2022 reference data we hold at that time. We will use your reference amount when we calculate your delinked payments each year
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