Closing Date For Single Farm Payment Forms

Farmers have been reminded by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development that the closing date for submitting their 2011 Single Application Forms is 15 May 2011. As 15 May 2011 is a Sunday, applications will be accepted without penalty on Monday 16 May 2011. A DARD spokesman said, “Application forms received by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) after 16 May 2011 and by 10 June 2011, will incur late application penalties. Forms received on 11 June 2011 and after will be rejected. Up to the present, DARD has received 1,680 online applications and in the region of 3,000 paper applications. “2011 paper application packs have been issued to those farm businesses that submitted a 2010 Single Application. Those farm businesses that are enrolled for DARD online services will also have received an email to remind them they can submit their Single Application online. “Businesses that did not lodge an application in 2010, or have not yet received a pack, can enroll for DARD online services and apply online or alternatively can obtain a paper application form by contacting their local DARD office. Guidance on the completion of the application is proved in the ‘Guide on how to complete your 2011 Single Application and Field Data Sheets’.” “This booklet was included in the application pack and is available online at http://www.dardni.gov/grants-and-funding. Farmers are advised to refer to the aerial photographs recently supplied by DARD when walking their fields to check for ineligible land prior to completion of their 2011 application. Maps and aerial photographs are available online. Payment should be claimed only on land that is eligible under the respective aid schemes. “Farmers who have already submitted their 2011 Single Application, and now discover they have made a mistake, or have used an out-of-date map, should immediately amend their claim by completing the SAF 3 form provided in their pack. If amendments to claims are required for previous years these should be notified on a separate SAF 3 for each year concerned. SAF3 forms for previous years can be downloaded from the DARD website and are available on request from DARD local offices. “Single Farm Payment Entitlements need to be activated for payment at least once every two years. Farmers who did not activate entitlements in 2010 must do so in 2011 in order to avoid some or all of them being confiscated and returned to the National Reserve. DARD will rotate entitlements to seek to avoid this as far as possible, but this rotation will not protect entitlements in circumstances where less than half the entitlements are claimed for two years in succession or in circumstances where a farm business has entitlements of different values. “Businesses that have applied to transfer entitlements for the 2011 scheme year by sale or lease, and who have not yet been notified by DARD of the outcome, should bear in mind when completing their 2011 Single Application that entitlements belong to the farm business approved by DARD as holding the entitlements at 15 May 2011. “An increasing number of farmers now submit their Single Application online. Anyone considering this method of application for the first time should contact DARD’s Online Services Team on telephone 028 9442 6699 or visit http://www.dardni.gov.uk/onlineservices. Applications that are submitted online are automatically checked for errors and omissions. This reduces the amount of time spent on manual checking and processing a claim and helps to produce faster payments.” ]]>