BackA young farmer has now received the £45k he was denied by the Rural Payments Agency, following a Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigation.
The farmer, in his 20s, from Herefordshire had been complaining to the Rural Payments Agency for three years in order to receive the money he believed that he was entitled to under the European Union’s Single Payment Scheme, an income support for farmers.
The farmer tried to have his entitlements - without which you cannot claim the subsidy - put into his name, as they were previously under his grandparent’s name.
When his farm secretary called up the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to make the change, there was a problem with the computer system and she was told not to send the form which would put the entitlements in his name. This advice was wrong and as a result the farmer missed the deadline for claiming.
The farm secretary called the RPA, before the deadline, to check several times if the computer problem was fixed. The computer problem wasn’t fixed and she was never asked to send in the form, meaning the deadline was missed.
Following an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, he has now received a £45,377.30 payment by the RPA equivalent to the subsidy he would have received, plus £1,468.71 interest and an additional £1,000 for the poor service he received from the RPA.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Julie Mellor said: “This case highlights the importance of complaining. This young farmer had been farming for two years when he suddenly lost his expected income despite taking what he considered to be all the necessary steps to ensure he would receive this subsidy.”
Details can be found under the following link.
Source: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, United Kingdom
