The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has clarified the position in respect of changes to the Young Farmers’ Payment (YFP) in 2018.
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This clarification is a result of additional information recently received from the EU Commission regarding changes made to the EU Regulations which were agreed in Brussels in December 2017 and alters what was previously announced.
The Department had previously announced that successful applicants for the YFP will now receive the payment for all five years following their first successful application to the scheme. Under previous rules, this five-year period would have been reduced had the young farmer been farming as head of holding for a time before first submitting an application. However, the EU Commission has now clarified that the new arrangements cannot be used to make retrospective payments to YFP applicants in respect of 2016 or 2017 if payments were not due in those years under the old rules.
For example, an applicant who was accepted for YFP in 2015 for a period of one year only under the previous rules will now be able to receive YFP for 2018 and 2019 scheme years but not for 2016 and 2017 scheme years. The Department will be contacting those applicants who are affected by this rule change to advise them to make an application for YFP on the online 2018 Single Application Form (SAF).
The five year payment period is subject to applicants continuing to meet the eligibility conditions of the scheme during this time. Any future changes that may be made to EU legislation and future decisions taken on agricultural support policy by the UK Government and Northern Ireland Government after the UK leaves the EU could change this position.
Notes to editors:
- The original announcement is available on the DAERA website.
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