Rural Payments and Services

1. Requesting an advisory firm

2. Advisory firm accepts request

3. Mandating an advisory firm

1.Business representative request

2. Accepting a business representative request

3. Mandating a business representative

1. Registering as an agent

2. Accepting an agents request

3. Mandating an agent

Updating bank account details

The facility to change a bank account can be mandated to an Advisory Firm or Business Representative. Please think very carefully before doing this, as you will be giving someone else permission to change your business’ bank account details.

All change requests result in a letter being sent to the Responsible Person’s postal address as held against the Responsible Person’s record in Rural Payments & Services. A new bank account will not be activated to receive payments until 11 calendar days after the change was saved.

Replacing responsible person

Please note

The current edit feature within the responsible person screen is solely for updating the contact and personal details of the business member who currently holds the role of responsible person. For example if that person changed their surname following marriage they would update it using the edit function. You cannot change your date of birth or National Insurance number using the edit function. If you are the current responsible person and these are wrong you’ll need to speak to your local area office who will arrange to have them amended after seeing suitable proof.

If an online business wishes to swap the role of responsible person to another business member, but the current responsible person is not available to access the account, please contact your local area office who can complete this function on behalf of your business.

If you need to swap the role of responsible person between the listed members of your business, please follow the steps in the video. Your business type will need to have more than one business member recorded against your business on the funding screen and the business member you are swapping the responsible person role to, will need to have their own Rural Payments and Service login account. If your business type is a sole trader business see below.

Sole traders

A sole trader business only has one business member who will by default have the responsible person role. A sole trader business will never have a need to replace the role of responsible person. Where a sole trader business sells up, or the sole trader dies, their business record (BRN) will come to an end as it cannot be transferred to a third party. Any person buying or inheriting a sole trader business will require a new business reference number unless they already have one of their own. In the event of the death of a sole trader, the executor of the estate should contact the local area office for guidance on how to administer the existing business until it is wound up.

Offline customers who registered with and currently use paper applications and who wish to go online will need to claim offline identity. An email address is required before you can create an account on Rural Payments and Services.

Offline customers who registered with and currently use paper applications and who wish to go online will need to claim offline identity. An email address is required before you can create an account on Rural Payments and Services.