Wrong advice had repercussions for farmer

What happened

Mr J asked the RPA whether he could claim farming subsidy. He had missed some claim years and thought he might have lost his eligibility. The RPA told him that he could claim under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) for 2010 and again for 2011. It was wrong. In 2012 it fixed its computer error and asked him to repay £4,350. The RPA apologised for giving Mr J incorrect information and offered him £100 by way of apology. But it did not pay him the money and offset it against the debt. Mr J told RPA that he could not afford to repay the debt as quickly as it wanted and that doing so would cause him hardship and force him to sell his animals. When it used government lawyers to threaten him with legal action, he used a bank loan to repay the subsidy.

What we found

RPA put an incorrect use?by date for Mr J's SPS entitlements for his SPS 2010 and 2011 claim years. It did not tell him about this error for two years and paid him £4,250 he should not have received. It wrongly decided that he should have realised it had overpaid him. It failed to offer him a fair and proportionate repayment period for the debt that it should have written off. It then mishandled his complaint about this.

Mr J would not have claimed subsidy incorrectly without RPA's written and spoken information, which was based on inaccurate data. His success in being able to borrow money over a repayment period that he can afford means he has not had to sell his animals. But RPA's mistakes denied him the accurate information he needed to plan his finances; caused him anxiety about how he could repay the money; caused him to fear a visit from court?appointed bailiffs after the government lawyers took a hand and left him in debt, just at the point when he had expected to become debt–free.

Putting it right

RPA apologised to Mr J; and reviewed its decision about recovering the overpayment, taking account of what we had said about the flaws in its earlier decision. It paid him £1,000 by way of apology; and agreed to produce guidance on the recovery of overpayments that, fairly, sets out the responsibilities of the RPA and of claimants.