Guidance

How to complete a Countryside Stewardship revenue claim by email or post

Published 14 March 2023

Applies to England

This guidance explains how to complete your Countryside Stewardship (CS) revenue claim form if you’re unable to submit a claim online.

The CS revenue claim form is not available on GOV.UK, you’ll need to request it by phone or email.

Telephone: 03000 200 301
Opening times: 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)
Find out about call charges at www.gov.uk/call-chargesEmail ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk

Important dates

This year, the revenue claim deadline is 11.59pm on 15 May 2024.

 If you return your claim form:

• between 16 May 2024 and 31 May 2024: a reduction of 5% of your total payment for this claim year will be applied
• between 1 June 2024 and 01 July 2024: a reduction of 10% of your total payment for this claim year will be applied
• between 02 July 2024 and 2 September 2024: a reduction of 25% of your total payment for this claim year will be applied
• after 11.59pm on 2 September 2024: your payment will be withheld for this claim year, unless you have a good reason or other exceptional circumstances apply

You should submit your claim form as early as possible and well before the deadline, to allow time to resolve any queries. This will help us progress your claim as quickly as possible.

If you’re submitting your claim by email

Save the form and annexes to your computer. Fill them in on your screen or print them and write the information onto the paper copy. In both cases, you must print the declaration section, then sign and date it.

Scan any printed sections into your computer as well as supporting documents and any evidence you need to submit. Please check the information you have completed and scanned is clear and legible, as this will help to prevent delays. Email your completed form to us, together with any annexes, evidence and supporting documents. For more information read the ‘Submit your claim’ section.

If you’re submitting your claim by post

Fill in the claim form and annexes and post them to us together with any supporting documents and any evidence that you need to submit. Remember to sign and date the declaration section in the form. For more information read the ‘Submit your claim’ section.

If you’re completing a paper claim use capital letters and black ink throughout and make sure that you initial any alterations – do not use correcting fluid.

You must sign and date your claim form if you are submitting it by either email or post. Please include your Single Business Identifier (SBI) at the bottom of all pages.

How to complete your claim

Before you complete and submit your CS claim, please make sure you have updated your land use codes by signing into the Rural Payments service. If you are unable to access the Rural Payments service, email us at ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk.

Section 1: Your claim details

This section is pre-populated. Check your details are correct. If any details are incorrect, please contact us.

Section 2: Parcel based multi-year options summary

Use this section to complete your parcel-based options.

If you received a blank claim form, please use Annex 1 to complete the parcel-based options.

If you received a pre-populated form, section 2 shows the parcel based multi-year options and the parcels in your agreement during the claim period (for example, 1 January to 31 December).

You must meet the requirements of the options as they appeared in the agreement document that you signed up to in the first year of your agreement. Any changes that have been made to the options after you signed up to your agreement do not apply to you.

Check each line of the table carefully. Make sure the correct option codes and areas are listed and that you have delivered, or will deliver, the required management this year. Complete Section 6 if any of the details are incorrect, or there are areas you will be unable to manage in accordance with your agreement. If you do not tell us about any incorrect details, it could lead to reductions being applied to your claim.

If you did not claim the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), write the land use codes in the ‘If no BPS claim indicate (ha)’ column. Check the Rural payments: land use codes 2024.

We complete land use cross checks as part of the claims process. You must provide all land use codes that apply to each parcel on which you are claiming a CS multi-year option. Your payment may be delayed or reduced if land use codes are missing.

Section 3: Rotational multi-year options summary and location

Complete the table with the location and area of your rotational options for the current cropping year. For example, the cropping year that started last autumn to harvest this year.

Only include the amount of the option you intend to claim for. For options AB2, AB6, OP1, AB7 and AB13 record the location of the stubble for winter 2024/2025.

Read the Existing agreement holder’s guidance: Countryside Stewardship for further information on recording your rotational options.

If you did not claim Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), write the land use codes in the ‘If no BPS claim indicate’ column. Check the Rural payments: land use codes 2024.

We complete land use cross checks as part of the claims process. You must provide all land use codes that apply to each parcel on which you are claiming a CS multi-year option. Your payment may be delayed or reduced if the land-use codes are missing.

If you cannot confirm the location of any of the rotational options, leave the parcel number(s)/area(s) column blank. Then, tick the final column to confirm you will give the location(s) before 2 September 2024 by:

• email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk
• or post to:

Rural Payments Agency
PO Box 324
WORKSOP
S95 1DF

Failure to declare the locations of your rotational option(s) by 2 September 2024 may lead to the permanent reduction / removal of the option. Fill in all other relevant information.

Use a continuation sheet(s) or Annex 2 if you need more space to enter all the land parcels that have rotational options. Fill in the number of continuation sheets used in the box.

Section 4: Agreement level options

If your agreement includes options SP10, AB12 or OP3, please fill in the table.

If your agreement includes AB12 or OP3 fill in the ‘Quantity claimed’ column in tonnes or hectares (you do not need to fill in this column for SP10).

Section 5: Number of Educational Access visits

If your agreement includes Educational Access option ED1, fill in the box with the number of visits (max 25) that you plan to hold on your farm between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024.

The deadline to submit all your ED1 Farm Visit Evaluation Forms is 31 January 2025.

Section 6: Change(s) to your claim

If any of the options in your agreement have changed, use the box to provide details. For example:

• if you have been or will be unable to carry out the management required, explain why. Also, include the field parcel references and multi-year options affected. (If you have submitted a written request for a minor and temporary adjustment to your agreement for this year, you do not need to provide details in the box)
• if there has been a transfer in or out of your agreement, you should complete a ‘transfer in or transfer out’ form. If you have not told us about a transfer yet, include details of the land, the party the land was transferred from/to and the date of transfer
• provide details of any other changes to the parcel-based options information (as shown in Section 4 of your agreement document)

Section 7: Declarations

Read the declaration section and fill in your name and status (for example, agent, partner, agreement holder), and sign and date it. You must have the correct permission level (at least ‘CS Agreements – Submit’) in the Rural Payments service before you submit your claim.

Supporting documents and evidence requirements

We must receive your claim, any supporting documents and evidence that you need to submit with your claim, by 15 May 2024. We will apply late reductions to claims received between 16 May and the final deadline of 2 September.

The supporting documents and evidence you need to send to us may vary. You need to read the agreement holder’s guide for the relevant CS scheme. You must submit some evidence to us with your claim and keep other evidence until we ask for it. Read about the requirements for each individual item in grant finder.

How to submit your supporting documents and evidence

You can submit your supporting documents and evidence by email or post.

Submit by email

Scan your supporting documents and evidence and email them to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk using ‘CS Revenue Claim Evidence [Your SBI] [Claim Reference, if known]’ as the email subject heading.

Make sure your emails are not over 32MB as this is the largest email size we can receive.

Do not include links to cloud storage, for example Dropbox or Google Drive, as we cannot accept documents or evidence this way.

You can send digital photos by email, but do not send scans of printed photos as the quality is not good enough. Read the ‘Photographic Evidence Quality’ section of the agreement holder’s guide for the relevant CS scheme for more information.

Submit by post

You can also send supporting documents and evidence by post to:

Rural Payments Agency
PO Box 324
Worksop
S95 1DF

Remember to put your SBI, agreement number on all documents and, where possible, include the claim reference.

For security reasons, do not send discs, USB pen drives or other external storage media.

We recommend you get proof of postage. You should keep a copy of everything you send to us.

Submit your claim

Remember to sign and date the declaration section in the claim form if you are submitting your claim by email or post. Send your completed claim (include all pages), supporting documents and any evidence that needs to be submitted, to reach us by 11.59pm on 15 May 2024. We will apply late reductions to claims received between 16 May and the final deadline of 2 September.

For all claims you must:

• print, sign and date the declaration section
• put your SBI and agreement number on everything you send to us
• have the correct permission level (at least ‘CS Agreements –Submit’) in the Rural Payments service before you submit your claim

Submit your claim by email

If you received your claim from us by email

‘Reply’ to that email and attach your completed documents to it. Remember to print the declaration section, then sign and date it. Scan it into your computer and include the supporting documents and evidence that needs to be submitted.

Please reply to the email we sent to you, rather than sending us a new email. Your claim will automatically be forwarded to the correct team and will not need to wait in a queue to be sorted manually. For more information about submitting evidence by email read the ‘supporting documents and evidence requirements’ section.

If you received your claim by post

You can submit it by email. Scan all the documents, attach them to an email and send the email to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk. Use ‘Countryside Stewardship 2024 Revenue Claim’ and your SBI as the email subject heading. Remember to sign and date the declaration section.

Make sure that the email address you’re sending your claim from is registered for your business in the Rural Payments service before you send the email.

For more information about submitting evidence by email read the ‘supporting documents and evidence requirements’ section.

Send your claim by post

If you received your claim by post and cannot submit it by email, you can post it to:

Rural Payments Agency
PO Box 324
Worksop
S95 1DF

Remember to sign and date the declaration section before you submit your claim. We recommend that you get proof of posting for any documents you send to us by post. You should keep a copy of everything you send to us.

What happens next

We will contact you if we have any queries.

We will make all payments directly into the bank account we have details for, so it’s important that this information is up to date.

After you’ve submitted your claim, you can check the progress of it in the Rural Payments service. The claim status will change in the CS claims screen as your claim progresses through the following stages.

Submitted

You have submitted your claim, supporting documents and any evidence that needs to be submitted, to reach us before the ‘claim by’ date in your agreement document.

Claim validation

Your claim, supporting documents and any evidence that you submitted are being checked to confirm eligibility.

Final checking

Your claim is waiting for final check and authorisation to pay.

Preparing for payment

Your claim is being sent for payment or has been paid.

The claim status will still show ‘preparing for payment’ after it has been paid. Please check your nominated bank account to confirm whether payment has been made. If your claim has been at ‘preparing for payment’ for longer than one month and you’ve not received your payment contact the RPA helpline.

Telephone: 03000 200 301
Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm (excluding public holidays)
Find out about call charges