BPS Update – Nov ’16 November 9, 2016 12:00 am Accountable People The RPA has confirmed that the requirement for claimants to give the RPA details of all ‘Accountable People’ within a business has now been dropped altogether for the 2016 BPS. Those with a good memory will recall that this requirement was briefly introduced for the 2015 claim, before being pulled during the application chaos in that year. It then returned again for the 2016 application. Initially it was thought details would have to be submitted with the claim, but without the ‘functionality’ available on the online system, this was delayed. The expectation then was that details would need to be submitted sometime over the summer, with the condition that payment would not be made until ‘Accountable People ‘ details had been supplied. The RPA has now confirmed that Accountable People details will not be required before 2016 BPS payments are made. It is not clear whether the provision will finally be enacted for 2017 claims. Entitlements Some may have noticed that the ‘Entitlements’ link on the online Rural Payments system is not currently available and it is not possible to view the number of entitlements. The RPA are improving this area and it is expected to be available again shortly. New functionality should allow users to view entitlements by scheme year. In addition there will be more information regarding entitlement transfers which should help users track the history, this will include lease end dates and National Reserve entitlements. With regards to entitlement transfers for 2016, it is looking unlikely that the online system will be available before the end of the year. Paper RLE1 forms are available, but where possible it is probably best to wait until the online systemis up and running, as paper forms will not be processed before next year anyway. Validation It is possible to track a claim’s validation progress on the Rural Payments System. In the ‘Business Overview’ page scroll down to the ‘Applications’ link and click on ‘Apply for BPS’. The progress of the claim will be shown in the ‘status’ bar. Most will show ‘Claim Validation’ but we expect the majority to change to ‘Final Checking’ during November and then ‘Preparing for Payment’ as the validation procedure is completed.
