LFASS Amendments

An amendment to the LFASS eligibility rules should mean some farmers taking on extra land are not disadvantaged.  Currently, if a farmer claiming under the LFASS takes on some more LFA land the ‘historic value’ calculated for the original holding is used to calculate the LFASS payments for the new land.  But if a farmer who does not already claim under the LFASS takes on LFA land, he cannot make a claim under the Scheme because he does not have any ‘historic values’ to use (there are separate rules for ‘new entrants’ to farming).  Under the recent amendment to the scheme rules, the historic value will now be able to be ‘transferred’ with the land.  Therefore, the new land owner can use the transferor’s historic value and is therefore able to make a claim under the LFASS.  This amendment is in addition to the one introduced in 2015 which allowed farmers who did not have the correct land or livestock in 2009 (the original historic year) to base their historic values on eligible land and livestock in 2013.  It is hoped that these further amendments will now see the majority of farmers who have eligible land and livestock being able to claim under the scheme.  Under EU rules the LFASS must be reviewed by 2017 and therefore a new scheme will be introduced for 2018 and beyond.