Paper forms available for Basic Payment applications and dealine extended

The announcement was made after the Rural Payments Agency failed to bring the online system up to full functionality in time to meet application deadline. The online system will only need to be used for registration.

Expressing her despair at the situation Berrys' associate Sarah Reece said: "I cannot believe what the RPA has done.

"It is extremely frustrating for us agents as we have been completing mainly online forms since 2011 therefore we will now have to implement an internal checking process of all paper forms, which will have to be photocopied before being delivered to RPA – very time consuming."

Established forms and processes will now be used to complete claims by the deadline and the RPA will then input this data on to the system. The RPA claims it has the resources it needs to undertake this work on time so that payments can be made to farmers from December 2015.

Apart from registering, farmers will not be asked to enter any further data online now. Data that has already been entered onto the system has been saved and will be used.

Two forms will be available to download from the RPA's website –www.gov.uk.

RLE1, which allows claimants to transfer land and entitlements and make changes to their land;

BP5, the BPS claim form.

The RPA will email all farmers and agents who have already registered on the Rural Payments website to provide further detail on completing and submitting claims.

The new ways farmers can complete their claims are:

a) Farm businesses with little change to their land will be fast-tracked by the RPA. They will receive an email in April outlining the land and entitlement information already held, together with simple instructions on completing their claim by email. The RPA has identified approximately 39,000 farmers in this category.

b) Farm businesses that need to map new features can use blank existing forms to prepare their claims, before they are sent a pre-populated form in April. They can submit their claim by post or through an RPA drop-in centre.

Any farmer who has not received an up-to-date map of their land from the RPA in the last six months will be sent one during April.

All agents will have received maps of their clients' land from the RPA by the end of March. Those dealing with the most complex cases will be offered additional support. The RPA is also working to give them direct access to the system.

"Farmers still need to register using the online Rural Payments service to begin the process of making their claim.," Sarah added.

For more information contact Berrys on 01743 271697 or email sarah.reece@berrybros.com