Form

Guidance on claiming your EWCO payments

Updated 23 October 2025

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

Read this guidance if you want to make a claim for EWCO payments. You can read the manage your agreement guidance which explains the different payments and payment periods for EWCO agreements.

You can also check the latest payment rates.

1. Claim payments for capital works

During the capital funding period, you can:  

• submit a claim for completed capital works at any time of year
• make multiple part-claims (each one has to be a minimum of £5,000)

However, this must be: 

• before or within 3 months of your agreement’s end of capital funding date (unless we agree an amendment to extend the grant funding period) 
• after the capital items being claimed for have been installed and paid for

You can submit claims for capital items that have been paid for before the agreement started, once your capital funding period has begun. However, you must not start work on the site before your agreement starts, or your claim will be rejected. 

Any claim you make must be for at least £5,000, unless: 

• it is your final claim for outstanding grant 
• the total standard costs in your agreement do not exceed £5,000 

1.1 Fill in and submit your forms 

To claim for completed capital works, fill in and submit a: 

• EWCO claim form
• grant claim declaration form 

Make sure that the ‘Total amount this claim is for’ section of the declaration form matches the amount shown in section 1.2 of the claim form.

You must also submit evidence of expenditure to support infrastructure costs, for example, invoices, receipts or bank statements.

If you cannot provide this evidence to support your EWCO claim, you must fill in and submit a EWCO claim evidence declaration form.

You do not need to submit evidence of expenditure for standard costs items, with your claim. However, you must keep a record of this evidence for your records for at least 7 years from the end date of the agreement, and provide it if requested. This is to show that public money is being spent effectively and is delivering intended results.

If you submitted your application from 22 June 2022 onwards, provide the following information with your claim: 

• details of the tree supplier 
• evidence your supplier meets the biosecure procurement requirement

Submit a final claim form within your grant funding period, even if you have not applied for standard cost items. If this applies to you, leave the standard cost section of the claim form blank, but you must indicate whether you are opting in or out of annual maintenance payments.

Submitting this final claim will trigger the additional contributions and annual maintenance payments.

2. When your capital claim will be paid 

You will usually be paid within 30 working days of us receiving a valid capital claim.

If we return your claim for missing information or corrections, it will only be valid when you return your corrected claim to us.

The 30-day time frame for new claims will not start until any outstanding claims or amendments have been approved. 

If your agreement has been selected for inspection, your claim will be paid within 90 working days, if it’s valid. You will not receive payments on any part of your agreement until the inspection has been completed and passed. 

In line with the EWCO terms and conditions, we may delay, reduce, recover or withhold the payment of the grant, where the following apply: 

• claim is incomplete, incorrect or without full supporting documentation 
• agreement has been breached 

3. Additional contribution payments 

When you submit your final claim for capital works, we will check eligibility has been met. You will then receive any additional contributions that are included in your agreement, together with your final capital claim payment. 

4. Claim your annual maintenance payments 

There are 15 years of annual maintenance payments to help establish the young trees once the capital works are complete. These payments are optional but the obligation to maintain your woodland for the 15-year obligation period remains.

Where applicable, your final claim for capital work will automatically trigger your first 5 years of annual maintenance payments. This means you do not need to claim for annual maintenance payments during the first 5 years. You will need to submit a claim in years 6 and 11 of the obligation period, to trigger the subsequent 5 years of annual maintenance payments.