Farmers have received letters from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine outlining the results of preliminary checks of the applications under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).
The preliminary checks were carried out on land claimed through BISS and other area based schemes.
Farmers will have received these letters for possible non-compliance in terms of land claimed for payment under an application.
Farmers who have received one of these letters can correct their application without penalty or reduction of scheme payments.
The possible non-compliance covered in the preliminary checks include:
- Overclaims, where the land in a 2023 application is greater than the eligible hectares associated with that applicant;
- Dual claims, where a land parcel has been declared by multiple applicants;
- Overlaps, where a portion of a land parcel declared by an applicant has also been declared by another applicant on their 2023 BISS application.
It is understood that a farmer will only receive a letter if potential non-compliance has been detected.
These letters can only be responded to online via the BISS online application system through the agfood portal.
A letter seen by Agriland, dated June 20, says that a farmer or their advisor must respond online on or before June 30. The letter says that responses will not be possible after this date.
However, the department has not publicly confirmed this date.
Recipients of the letters can only respond once to each preliminary check notification.
They can either amend their applications to resolve the issues raised in a preliminary check, or maintain the original application.
There are some instances where it is valid to maintain the original application, for example, in the instance of a possible dual claim, if a farmer is entitled to claim the declared land.
The letter says that further administrative checks will still need to be carried out on all applications, and thus further issues and reductions or penalties may arise later in the process in respect of applications.