Rural Payments and Services

Before you apply for this scheme please read the full scheme guidance.

Full scheme guidance

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask us before you submit an application or claim. If you do not follow the scheme rules, you risk losing all or part of any payment you may be entitled to.

If you need any help or assistance to use this guidance, you can book an appointment at your local area office.

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• 8 June 2017

We've updated the guidance on the maximum limit on expenditure eligible for grant.

Full scheme guiance

For previous versions of the guidance, please check the scheme archive.

New Entrants Capital Grant Scheme archive

The scheme is open to farmers and crofters who have been head of an agricultural business for up to five years before the application for support.

You can apply for this scheme at any time but you should only start work or buy materials you need after we have formally approved your application. If you have already received or applied for grant aid from any other public source to support this proposal, you cannot also apply under this scheme.

To apply for this scheme, you should complete the application form and send it to your area office for assessment. If you need a printed form, please ask your area office to send one to you.

Before making your application, please consult the Capital Grant Technical Guidance 2015-2020.

Capital Grant Technical Guidance

Approximately £2 million will be available each year for this scheme until 2020. This is a competitive scheme and each application is scored using the selection criteria explained in the full guidance.

Once that money has been allocated, we will close the scheme to applications until 1 January the next year.

If we have to do this we will tell you on the updates section of this web page.

You must complete all approved work and submit your claims through a claim form within one year of the date we approved your application.

A claim form will be sent to you if your application is successful.

You can find detailed information about applying and claiming for this scheme in the full scheme guidance.

Claims under this scheme should cover the total cost of your project. We will work out the grant due based on the lower of the eligible cost approved, or the actual eligible cost.

Individual New Entrant Farmers:

• less than 41 years old when they apply: up to 80 per cent of eligible costs in a Less Favoured Area and 60 per cent if outside
• aged 41 years or older when they apply: up to 60 per cent inside a Less Favoured Area and 40 per cent outside

Groups:

• including New Entrant Farmers aged less than 41 years old when they apply: 90 per cent in a Less Favoured Area and 80 per cent outside
• including New Entrant Farmers aged 41 years or older when they apply: 80 per cent in a Less Favoured Area and 60 per cent outside

For groups, an explanation of how this applies to different types of enterprise can be found in the full scheme guidance.

If you receive funding from this scheme you may be inspected. You can find out more about how and why we carry out inspections in our dedicated section.

Inspections

European Commission law requires us to carry out:

• on-farm inspections on at least five per cent of claims
• administrative checks on all claims

Payments can only be made after:

• you have completed the approved work
• you have made an eligible claim for payment
• if selected for inspection, we have checked the completed work

We will make payments directly to bank accounts via BACS and aim to pay eligible claims within 90 days of receiving them.

If we discover that you have not followed the terms of the scheme, we will call this a breach and you could face a penalty. It is important that we penalise breaches to make sure we are acting within European Commission law.

Further information why we need to penalise breaches can be found below.

Disallowance and penalties

There is no right of appeal against the refusal of an application but once an application has been approved, you can appeal against decisions to refuse, reduce or recover grant payment. When we send you a letter with a decision that you can appeal against, we will tell you about your rights of appeal.

If you are unhappy about the standard of service you have received, you may wish to complain.

Further information on how to appeal and complain about our services can be found in our dedicated sections.

Appeals

Complaints

If you have any questions about this scheme, please get in touch. Contact details can be found in our Contact us section.

Contact us