The deadline for farmers to correct any non-compliance issues in their Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications, which were detected during the preliminary checks, is fast approaching.
Online applicants to the BPS, who have received a notification of non-compliance, will have until Monday, June 19, to make corrections to their applications.
There will be no penalty or reduction where non-compliance issues are fully rectified by the deadline, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed recently.
The benefits of these preliminary checks are only open to online BPS applicants; almost 114,000 farmers applied online to the scheme this year, representing 87% of the total number of applicants.
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BPS preliminary checks can help online applicants avoid certain errors/penalties. Deadline 19 June #BasicPayments pic.twitter.com/XN22DRx5MD
— Dept Agriculture IRL (@agriculture_ie) June 12, 2017
Under EU regulations, all BPS applications will have to be submitted online in 2018. The department has been encouraging farmers to make the switch over to online applications over the last number of years.
Preliminary checks
Online BPS applicants will be notified by the department of any non-compliance in the areas of overclaims, dual-claims and overlaps as a result of these preliminary checks.
Where an application has been made through an advisor, the advisor will also have received a notification.
Support
A number of supports to help farmers and advisors to respond to preliminary checks, prior to the deadline, have been put in place by the department.
Farmers who receive a preliminary check notification have been urged to address it, as soon as possible, on the BPS online system.
Also Read: All you need to know about dealing with BPS preliminary checksIf a farmer or advisor receives a preliminary check notification, they can contact the Direct Payments Helpdesk at: 0761-064420.
A member of staff will then be able to talk the farmer or advisor through the process of responding.