Agency to pay up (From Western Telegraph)

Agency to pay up

Farmers who were denied payment for casualty stock before the Over Thirty Month Scheme (OTMS) was scrapped will be paid after all.

Pembrokeshire farmer and NFU vice-president, Meurig Raymond, says the Rural Payments Agency has backed down over the issue.

Before changes were made to the scheme in January, there were cases where farmers had their claims rejected for animals entering the OTMS scheme.

Mr Raymond said the farmers were not at fault and they should be entitled to payment. "We had heard of a large number of cases where farmers had casualty animals rejected when they had presented them well before the deadline for OTMS," he said.

"In each case there was a gap between the date when the injured animals were put down on farm and the date when they were collected. In some cases this lag was four to six days.''

The Rural Payments Association (RPA) has now set up an appeals procedure. It will send a letter to every producer that has received an OTMS 61 payment rejection form even if they have previously sent in an appeals letter to the Agency.

The pro forma letter will require evidence of the date on which the animal left the holding and also the date on which it was presented at the OTMS centre. "Farmers affected should look out for these letters and respond accordingly," said an NFU Cymru spokesman.