Basic Payment Scheme: guidance

13. Using your entitlements

The majority of businesses will use (claim payment on and be eligible to receive payment) all of their Basic Payment Scheme entitlements every year and will meet the usage rules of the scheme. If the entitlements are not used, it is important to note that you may lose some or all of them unless you can prove that your business suffered a force majeure / exceptional circumstance event which prevented you from doing so.

You must use all of your entitlements at least once in each two year period. The usage requirement is over two years. Provided you activate 100 per cent of your entitlements within at least one of those two years, none would be lost. If not, you will lose the ones not used.

If you buy entitlements (not lease them) your usage will start afresh in the first year you are eligible to claim on them. If you lease them, please be aware that the current usage will carry forward and will not start afresh.

The person leasing the entitlements (lessee) is responsible for ensuring that usage requirements during the lease are met. We will always record usage against their owned entitlements first. It is therefore up to both parties to ensure the usage requirements are met. If the leased entitlements are not used, they will be lost to both parties. We will not get involved in any dispute due to non-usage and the subsequent loss of entitlements at the end of, or part-way through, the lease.

The easiest way to submit a Single Application Forms is online by registering with Rural Payments and Services, at https://www.ruralpayments.org

If you submit your form online, we will:

• calculate your totals automatically
• reduce the chance of you making mistakes
• provide 24 hour access and give you an instant receipt
• give you up-to-date Single Farm Payment Scheme entitlement information

For help and assistance to register online, please visit our Customer Services section on the Rural Payments and Services website.