As the Rostons Team begin to meet with clients to submit their 2017 claim, it seems a good time to remind you that it’s never too soon to start thinking about this year’s scheme.
The greening rules are still in place, these are:
- Crop Diversification
- Ecological Focus Areas
- Permanent Grassland – however this rule relates to each member state and should not be a concern to individual claimants.
To help you prepare, here’s our ‘to do’ list in readiness of submitting 2017 claims.
1. 2015 Payment
Have you checked and understood how much you received in 2015? Many claimants experienced issues following the roll out of the scheme back in 2015 and for some these problems are yet to be resolved. You may not be aware if you have been underpaid, which may in turn have influenced your 2016 payment.
2. 2016 Payment
By now many people should have received their 2016 payment. If you’re English that’s approximately £215 per ha for non-SDA land, providing all greening and cross compliance rules were met and entitlements were activated. Unfortunately, Welsh claimants have much more complex calculations and vary on a claim-by-claim basis.
3. 2017 Preparations
A) Business Changes
- Who is registered as an authorised person under your business?
- Is your address, email and telephone numbers correct?
Check all of this information on the Rural Payments online system.
B) Land Changes
- Have you taken on any eligible additional land since last year?
- Are you confident that all the land on your claim this year will be at your disposal on the 15 May 2017?
C) Entitlements
- Do you have surplus entitlements which you could sell and gain another income?
- Do you need any more to maximise your claim and investment?
Contact us as soon as possible if you do – we are trading English and Welsh Entitlements now!
D) Greening
- Have you checked your greening for 2017 prior to sowing any autumn crops?
- Check with Rostons if you have any concerns now, then there will be time to deal with a possible issue prior to sowing any spring crops.
If you haven’t been contacted yet, it won’t be long until we have spoken with you to book an appointment to meet and prepare you 2017 claim.
If you haven’t used the services of Rostons for the submission of your claim previously please feel free to contact us to find out how we can help.