Useful Information
Entitlements were established in 2005 with the introduction of the Single Payment Scheme and expired on 31 December 2014 when that Scheme came to an end.
The Single Farm Payment was replaced by the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the Greening Payment in 2015.
How a farmer was allocated their Basic Payment Scheme Entitlements in 2015.
Any farmer who was eligible to receive a direct payment (Single Payment, Grassland Sheep Scheme, Burren Life Scheme, and Beef Data Programme) under the 2013 scheme year had an automatic right to establish entitlements under the new Basic Payment Scheme in 2015 provided a valid application was submitted in 2015.
The number of entitlements allocated to a farmer under the Basic Payment Scheme is based on the number of eligible hectares declared by the farmer in 2013 and 2015, whichever is lesser.
The value of entitlements established in 2015 was based on a fixed percentage of the value of entitlements owned by the farmer under the 2014 scheme year as well as any payment received under the Grassland Sheep Scheme.
Farmers who held entitlements with a unit value below 90% of the national average value was increased by one third of the difference between their starting value and the 90% level over the five years of the scheme.
Farmers who held entitlements with a unit value over 100% of the national average value seen their value decrease over the period of the scheme.
By 2019 all entitlements had a minimum value of 60% of the national average value. As all entitlements were subject to convergence towards 90% of the 2015 national average.
BISS Entitlements
The new BISS Entitlements scheme started in 2023 and is due to continue to run until 2027. It was based on what BPS entitlements you owned in 2022. The big difference with the BISS and the BPS scheme was that there is no greening top up on the Entitlements. Extra payments were put directly onto the land to compensate for this.
We at HMG would advise all farmers to consult with their Agri advisers for further information or follow our link the Department Of Agriculture website.