Timing and Scheme Year Rules for Annual Recurrent Payment Claims
You are asked to make claims for Annual Recurrent Payments via the Single Application Form (SAF) and arrangements will mirror those already in place for the SAF. Annual recurrent payment claims must be submitted by the SAF deadline each year. The SAF deadline is 15th May, except where the 15th falls on a Saturday or Sunday in which case the deadline is the first working day following. For claims submitted with the SAF in 2011, the claim deadline, to avoid late claim reductions, is 16 May 2011. SAF claims submitted between 17th May and 10th June will be subject to late-claim penalties. We cannot accept annual recurrent payment claims received after 10 June 2011.
The scheme year for Annual Recurrent payment claims is 1 January to 31 December, in line with the Single Farm Payment. You may submit Annual Recurrent payment claims where:
- A contract has been approved by 31 December of the previous year; and
- management arrangements will be in place in time to claim on the SAF; and
- no incompatible payments are being claimed on the area (e.g. single farm payment and farmland premium are incompatible) for that year; and
- the claimant expects to be contributing towards the intended outcome of the Option by the time payments are made following the end of the management year in question, e.g. for claims submitted with the SAF in May 2011, payments will commence in early 2012.
The only exception to this rule is for First Afforestation of Agricultural Land. Under the Woodland Creation option, there are both standard cost capital items and annual recurrent payments. The annual recurrent payments associated with the Woodland Creation option can be claimed with the SAF in 2011 by the 16 May 2011 deadline provided the contract was approved prior to 31 December 2010 and provided the claim for the standard cost capital element of the woodland creation will be submitted to the local RPID office by 30 June 2011.
Claims for the annual recurrent payments associated with Woodland Creation - Natural Regeneration Option, are slightly different: The Farmland Premium claims can be submitted once the land is fenced off or once the land is managed solely for attracting natural regeneration of trees. The Maintenance claims can only be made following the Initial planting capital claim that is submitted once a number of years worth of growth can be shown. Please see the Option specific guidance for further information.
Different Options in the same contract can start in different years, in accordance with your contract, as long as the decision to stagger the start years is explained in the Proposal. Multi-annual Options will still have to be carried out for the number of years specified for the particular Option.
For example, your contract is approved in 2010 and management arrangements are started prior to the SAF deadline on 16 May 2011. You would then be eligible to claim on the 2011 SAF. However, if the management arrangements are started after 16 May 2011, the annual recurrent payment claim should be made on the 2012 SAF. For example, if the claim relates to winter Options which don't start until October 2011, such as Away-wintering of Sheep or Off-wintering of Sheep, you should make the first years claim for these on the 2012 SAF. For particular shorter Options, where all the first year's work is completed within 2011, this should be claimed in 2011.
If you are claiming for an Option which includes an element of compensation for income foregone (for example, for some afforestation and Natura 2000 Options), the compensatory payment claim must be started in the same year as the Annual Recurrent claim. You can only do this if you are not claiming an incompatible payment on the same piece of land for that year. For example, in the same year you cannot receive both a Single Farm Payment as well as a compensatory rate such as the Farmland Premium. Please refer to guidance for your specific Option to find out when you can make claims for the different elements of the Option payments.
Back to contents