submitting your countryside stewardship revenue claim ... · 2 revenue claim help – gov.uk...

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The European Agricultural Fundfor Rural Development:

Europe investing in rural areas

Submitting your Countryside Stewardship revenue claim – onscreen help

www.gov.uk/claim-rural-payments

The ‘Help’ links on the screens in the Rural Payments service tell you what to do on that screen.

This document contains all the onscreen ‘Help’ for people using the service. We’ll update it as more features become available on the service. You can print it or save it to your computer.

http://www.gov.uk/claim-rural-payments

Revenue Claim Help – GOV.UK Version 11


Contents

Countryside Stewardship Claims 3

Complete Countryside Stewardship Revenue Claim 5

Agreement Level Options 7

Parcel based options 8

Rotational Options 9

Changes to your claim 12

Other Public Funding 12

Organic Land 13

Declarations 13

View and print your Claim Summary 13

View and print your Evidence Checklist 14

Submit your claim 14

Manage revenue claim confirmation of revenue claim withdraw 15

Manage revenue claim confirmation of revenue claim withdraw failure messages 15


Countryside Stewardship Countryside Stewardship Claims

Start or open a Countryside Stewardship claimUse these screens to submit a revenue claim for your Countryside Stewardship agreement. Read the ‘How to submit your revenue claim online’ guide for more information on how to claim online and to find out what supporting information you need to send to Natural England. These guides are available on the gov.uk website and will also assist you if you encounter any problems creating, completing or submitting your claim.

From the Countryside Stewardship page click on the Countryside Stewardship Claims link and in the following screen select to Create a new Countryside Stewardship Revenue Claim.

Remember to saveIt’s important that you click any Save buttons as you go through your claim. Then, if your power or broadband fails you won’t lose the information you’ve already put into the service. Most of the screens will save information automatically as you update them, but if you see a save button, we recommend you use it regularly so you don’t lose any changes you have made.

Creating a new revenue claimTo create a new Countryside Stewardship revenue claim click the green button for ‘Create a new Countryside Stewardship Revenue Claim’ as shown– while this is working you may see an onscreen message telling you that a claim is being created.

Once you have selected the type of claim you wish to create, a list of agreements associated with the business you selected will be displayed. Select the agreement you wish to submit the claim for by clicking the circle to the left of the agreement name and then click the green button to create a new Countryside Stewardship Revenue Claim. For example:

A new claim will be generated with a unique claim reference number. You will receive an onscreen confirmation that the claim creation was successful. Click ‘Close’ to return to the Countryside Stewardship Claims screen.


The claim status will show as ‘Created’.

If your claim is created successfully, but the status appears as ‘Claim Held – contact your local office’, contact your local Natural England office.

If you can’t create a new claim, please refer to the ‘Create’ section of the ‘How to submit your claim online’ guide for revenue claims.

Opening your claimOnce you have successfully created the claim, the status will be ‘Created’ as shown below:

The information on the screen is explained below.

Click Open to continue your claim.

Key termsClaim Reference – this is a unique number given to your claim, you should use this in all correspondence associated with your claim.

Agreement – the agreement this claim relates to, including the agreement reference number and the type (Higher Tier/Mid Tier/capital only)

Type – the type of Countryside Stewardship claim (revenue claim or capital claim) you have created and the claim year.

Active – this shows ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ depending whether the claim is a current one, or has been withdrawn or rejected.

Submit date – after you submit your claim this box will show the date and time it was submitted.

Status – this tells you what stage your claim is at:

n Created – Your claim has been created but not yet submitted.

n Claim Held – contact your local office – Your claim cannot currently proceed and you need to contact your local Natural England Technical Services team


n Submitted – Awaiting Evidence – You have submitted your claim online and now need to send your evidence and supporting documents to Natural England before the claim deadline. Please refer to the scheme manual that governs your agreement to check the claim submission deadline date by going to https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ countryside-stewardship-get-paid-for-environmental-land-management

n Claim Validation – Your claim, the evidence and supporting documents are being checked to confirm eligibility.

n Final Checking – Your claim is awaiting final check and authorisation to pay.

n Preparing for Payment – Your claim is being sent for payment, or has been paid.

The status of your claim will not change from ‘Preparing for Payment’ once it has been paid. If your claim has been at ‘Preparing for Payment’ for longer than 1 month and you have not received your payment contact your local Natural England Technical Services Team.

Green button – before you submit your claim, there will be one green ‘Open’ button that enables you to open your claim details. After you’ve submitted your claim there will be green buttons that enable you to generate your claim summary, evidence checklist and covering letter.

To change a claim after you have submitted it If you need to change your claim after you’ve submitted it, you will need to contact your local Natural England Technical Services Team. Call 03000 200 301 and select the option to speak to Natural England.

Complete Countryside Stewardship Revenue Claim

This screen has 4 sections, each with different options underneath it. The ‘How to submit your revenue claim online’ guidance explains the best way to work through these sections to complete your claim accurately.

Contact your local Natural England Technical Services team before attempting to submit your claim online if you have any of the following agreement combinations under the same Single Business Identifier (SBI):

n More than one live Countryside Stewardship agreement

n A live Countryside Stewardship agreement and a live Environmental Stewardship agreement

n A live Countryside Stewardship agreement and a live Forestry Scheme

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countryside-stewardship-get-paid-for-environmental-land-management



Click the triangle to open each section:

Complete your claimThis has 7 sections for you to enter the details of your claim. Each section is outlined below, further detail can be found in the ‘Help’ for each section:

n Agreement Level Options to be claimed – claim for any agreement level options contained within your agreement.

n Parcel Based Options to be claimed – claim for any parcel based options contained within your agreement.

n Rotational Options to be claimed – claim for any rotational options contained within your agreement

n Change(s) to your claim – confirm whether you have made any changes to your claim by answering either ‘Yes’ or No’. You will not be able to submit your claim unless you have answered this question.

n Other Public Funding – confirm whether you have received any other public funding. This question must be answered before you can submit your claim.

n Organic Land – If your agreement includes any organic land, Natural England need to confirm the eligibility of your claim by checking whether you meet the definition of an ‘active farmer’. This section is only applicable if your agreement contains organic revenue options but you must answer the question before you can submit your claim.

n Declarations - you must complete this declaration or you won’t be able to submit your claim.

View and print your claim summaryHere you can generate and download a copy of your claim summary. You should check that all of the details in the summary are correct before submitting your claim.

Please note – EFA area is displayed in square metres in the claim summary rather than in hectares. 1 hectare is equal to 10000 square metres. This means the EFA area will show as a larger number than expected e.g. 3.2 hectares will be displayed as 32000 metres squared. You do not need to contact Natural England to amend this.


View and print your Evidence ChecklistHere you can generate and download an evidence checklist. You should view this checklist before submitting the claim.

Submit your claimOnce you’ve completed your claim details and the declarations, check your claim summary to make sure that you’re happy with the information you’re going to submit.

Submit – This submits your claim to Natural England and you must now send in all of your evidence and supporting documents.

Withdraw – Click to withdraw your claim and not submit to Natural England. The status of your claim will appear in the claim menu as ‘Withdrawn.’ Contact Natural England if you would like to reinstate the claim.

If you see a warning screen after you press submit, you need to read each of the warning messages and take the necessary action before you submit again. Refer to the ‘Confirm’ section of the ‘How to submit your revenue claim online’ guidance for a table of warnings and how to resolve them.

Back – click to return to the Countryside Stewardship Claims screen.

Withdraw your claimIf you wish to withdraw your claim, click the green ‘Withdraw’ button under ‘Submit Your Claim’ then answer ‘Yes’ to the warning message that appears on screen.

You will receive an onscreen message confirming that your claim has been successfully withdrawn.

Click ‘Back’ to return to the ‘Countryside Stewardship Claims’ screen. The status of your claim will now be ‘Withdrawn’.

You can withdraw your claim when it is at the following claim status:

n ‘Created’

If you wish to withdraw your claim at any other status, you should contact your local Natural England Technical Services team.

Agreement Level Options

Here you can claim for any agreement level options contained within your agreement. These are options that form part of your agreement but are not assigned to any specific field parcels. For example, option ED1 – Educational Access.

If your agreement does not contain any agreement level options, a message stating ‘Your agreement does not contain any options of this type’ will be displayed. You do not need to take any further action in this section and should click ‘Close’ to return to the ‘Complete your claim’ section.

For help completing this section see the ‘How to submit your revenue claim online’ guidance.

If your agreement does contain agreement level options, but you do not intend to claim them, you must ‘Open’ the option screen as explained below and enter ‘0’. You will not be able to submit your claim unless you have entered a claimed figure for all agreement level options.


Key terms:Option Code – listed in alphabetical order, these are all of the Agreement Level Options in your Countryside Stewardship agreement.

Option Title – the full title of the option

Total Approved – the total amount of the option contained within your agreement

Claimed – the amount you are claiming as part of this current claim. This will appear as zero until you have completed the next step.

Close – click to return to the ‘Complete your claim’ section

To enter a claimed amount, click Open against the option code you wish to claim for. A new screen will appear, enter the amount you are claiming (or ‘0’) under ‘Claimed’ in numerical format as shown below. You cannot claim for more than the approved amount of the option.

Save – click to save your details.

Back – click to return to the ‘Agreement Level Options to be claimed’ screen.

Close – click to return to the ‘Complete your claim’ section.

Parcel based options

Here you can claim for any parcel based options contained within your agreement.

If your agreement does not contain any parcel based options, a message stating ‘Your agreement does not contain any options of this type’ will be displayed. You do not need to take any further action in this section and should click ‘Close’ to return to the ‘Complete your claim’ section.


Key terms:Option Code – listed in alphabetical order, these are all of the Parcel based options in your Countryside Stewardship agreement.



Claimed – the amount you are claiming as part of this current claim. This is automatically set to match the total approved, but the amount can be amended if you wish to reduce the amount you are claiming.

EFA Area – the area covered by the option that is also being used to meet Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirements for the Basic Payment Scheme.



To amend a claimed amount, click ‘Open’ against the option code you wish to claim for. A new screen will appear, delete the figure against each field parcel under ‘Claimed’ and enter the reduced amount you wish to claim, in numerical format as shown below:

Key termsSheet Number – this is the ordnance survey sheet reference of the field parcel in your agreement.

Parcel Number – this is the specific field parcel reference number of the field parcel in your agreement.

Total Approved – the total amount of the option contained within your agreement.

Claimed – the amount you are claiming as part of this current claim.

EFA Area (Ha) – only shown for options that are potentially liable for double funding because they could also be used to meet Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirements for the Basic Payment Scheme. If the ‘EFA Area’ column is present, the amount is automatically set to ‘0’. If your Countryside Stewardship option and EFA occupy the same area of land within the field parcel, delete the ‘0’ and enter the EFA area in hectares, in numerical format. If you are not using the option to meet your EFA requirements, leave the ‘0’ in place.

Further information regarding EFA is displayed on the individual option screen, or you can refer to the ‘Relationship with the Basic Payment Scheme’ section of the Mid Tier/Higher Tier scheme manual that governs your agreement. The manuals can be viewed by going to: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countryside-stewardship-get-paid-for-environmental-land-management

Save – click to save your details.

Back – click to return to the ‘Parcel Based Options to be claimed’ screen.


Rotational Options

Here you can claim for any rotational options contained within your agreement.

You must confirm the Land Use for each parcel. If this is not updated, your rotational options will not be displayed. From the ‘Business Overview’ page go to the ‘Land’ section and click on the ‘Land’ link. On the ‘Land’ page, scroll down to ‘Update land use’ and click on the ‘Land use’ link. By clicking on the link, you will be able to review and, if necessary, update the Land Use for each parcel. Once you have refreshed your land uses your rotational options will be displayed.





If your agreement does not contain any rotational options, a message stating ‘Your agreement does not contain any options of this type’ will be displayed. However, you must answer the question regarding the location of options with ‘N/A’ or you will not be able to submit your claim. Click ‘N/A’ as shown below:

Key terms:Option Code – listed in alphabetical order, these are all of the Rotational Options in your Countryside Stewardship agreement.



Claimed – the amount you are claiming as part of this current claim. This will appear as zero until you have completed the next step.

EFA Area – the area covered by the option that is also being used to meet Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirements for the Basic Payment Scheme.


If you have not yet decided where your rotational options will be located during this scheme year, you must still indicate how much of the option(s) you intend to claim. This can be against any available parcel, but you must ensure that you answer ‘No’ to the location of rotational options question. You must provide confirmation in writing to Natural England of the location of your rotational options as soon as this information is available, and no later than the 1st September in the scheme year. You will not be able to enter this information online once your claim has been submitted. Your claim will not be paid until you have provided this information.

To enter your ‘Claimed’ amount(s). Click Open against the option code you wish to claim for. You will see the following individual option screen which shows all parcels that are eligible for the option:


Key termsSheet Number – this is the ordnance survey sheet reference of the field parcel in your agreement.

Parcel Number – this is the specific field parcel reference number of the field parcel in your agreement.

Eligible – the eligible area of the field parcel

Claimed (HA) – this is the amount of the option you are claiming for in this scheme year. If you know where this rotational option will be located in this scheme year, enter the amount you are claiming against each relevant field parcel. This should be in numerical format. If you do not know where this rotational option will be located in this scheme year, enter the amount you are claiming against any available field parcel(s). If you enter a claimed figure that exceeds the individual eligible parcel area, or your total claimed exceeds the total approved amount of the option, an error message will be displayed and you will not be able to proceed until you have corrected this.

EFA Area – only shown for options that are potentially liable for double funding because they could also be used to meet Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirements for the Basic Payment Scheme. If the ‘EFA Area’ column is present, the amount is automatically set to ‘0’. If your Countryside Stewardship option and EFA occupy the same area of land within the field parcel, delete the ‘0’ and enter the EFA area in hectares, in numerical format. If you are not using the option to meet your EFA requirements, leave the ‘0’ in place.

Further information regarding EFA is displayed on the individual option screen, or you can refer to the ‘Relationship with the Basic Payment Scheme’ section of the Mid Tier/Higher Tier scheme manual that governs your agreement. The manuals can be viewed by going to: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countryside-stewardship-get-paid-for-environmental-land-management

Save – click to save your changes.

Back – click to return to the ‘Rotational options to be claimed’ screen.

Once you have added the claimed amount and the EFA area (if applicable) for each rotational option, you need to answer the location of rotational options question:

If you know the location of all the rotational options you are claiming, answer ‘Yes’ to the question as shown below.

If you do not know the location of all the rotational options you are claiming and will be confirming this information to Natural England at a later date, answer ‘No’ to the question as shown below.

Close – click to save and return to the ‘Complete your claim’ section.





Changes to your claim

This section asks you to confirm whether you have made any changes to your claim by answering either ‘Yes’ or No’. You will not be able to submit your claim unless you have answered this question.

Yes – if you answer yes, enter the details of any changes made in the box provided. You will not be able to submit your claim unless you have added the details in this box.

Clear – click to delete all information you have entered.

Save – click to save your details


Other Public Funding

Countryside Stewardship cannot be used to pay for environmental management which an agreement holder is required to carry out under other alternative grant schemes or obligations. In order to assess the eligibility of your claim, Natural England must be informed of any other public funding you have received.

This section is only applicable if your agreement includes revenue options for access, maintenance and/or restoration of buildings. If this doesn’t apply to you, answer ‘No’ to the question.

If your agreement does contain options of this type, confirm whether you have received any de minimis state aid payments in the 3 years prior to the date of the claim, other than the payments received as part of your agreement, by answering either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

You will not be able to submit your claim unless you have answered this question.

Yes – if you answer yes, enter the amount received in the ‘Total amount received (£)’ box, as highlighted above.

No – if your agreement does not contain any of the revenue option types listed above, or you have not received any de minimis state aid payments, click no.

Clear – click to delete all information you have entered




Organic Land

If your agreement includes any organic land, Natural England need to confirm the eligibility of your claim by checking whether you meet the definition of an ‘active farmer’. Further information regarding the ‘active farmer’ definition can be found within the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) guidance online. Go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘active farmer’.

This section is only applicable if your agreement contains any organic revenue options. If this doesn’t apply to you, answer ‘N/A’ to the question.

You will not be able to submit your claim unless you have answered this question

Yes – select this if your agreement does contain options of this type and you meet the definition of an ‘active farmer’.

No – select this if your agreement does contain options of this type and you do not meet the definition of an ‘active farmer.’ Refer to the BPS guidance to confirm whether you need to supply an Accountant Certificate to confirm active farmer status. If required, this must be submitted to Natural England by the claim deadline

N/A – select this if your agreement does not contain organic revenue options.

Clear – click to delete all information you have entered



Declarations

You must complete this declaration or you won’t be able to submit your claim.

Read the whole declaration first. Click the arrow at the bottom of the bar to the right of the declaration to scroll down the declaration.

Then click the button next to Yes to agree to the terms and conditions and make the declaration.

Finally click Close to save your response and leave the screen.

View and print your Claim Summary

Claim summaryClick Generate to create your claim summary. The summary will show all of the information in your claim at the date and time the document is created.

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A small message will appear on screen to tell you that the summary is being created or updated. When this has finished, the date and time it was created will appear near the ‘Download’ option. If you haven’t yet submitted your claim, the date and time will be coloured green indicating that you can still make amendments to your claim details online. Once you have submitted your claim, the date and time will be coloured red indicating that you can’t make any further changes.

Click Download to read or print the summary or to save it to your computer - this will be the most recent summary you created for this claim. The ‘Download’ button will not be available until you have generated a summary. If you always ‘generate’ before you ‘download’ you’ll always see the most up to date information that is in the Rural Payments Service.

You can read the summary on screen by scrolling down the pages using the scroll bar at the side of the screen or you can print or save it by using the buttons available on screen

Please note- EFA area is displayed in square metres in the claim summary rather than in hectares. 1 hectare is equal to 10000 square metres. This means the EFA area will show as a larger number than expected e.g. 3.2 hectares will be displayed as 32000 metres squared. You do not need to contact Natural England to amend this

Keep a copy of this updated claim summary for your records. Do not send the summary to us as a paper form - we cannot accept it.

View and print your Evidence Checklist

You may be required to submit supporting evidence for some of the items you are claiming. All of the required evidence is displayed in a checklist which should be viewed before submitting the claim.

Click Generate to create your evidence checklist.

A small message will appear on screen to tell you that the checklist is being created or updated. When this has finished, the date and time it was created will appear near the ‘Download’ option. If you haven’t yet submitted your claim, the date and time will be coloured green indicating that you can still make amendments to your claim details online. Once you have submitted your claim, the date and time will be coloured red indicating that you can’t make any further changes.

Click Download to read or print the checklist or to save it to your computer - this will be the most recent checklist you created. For this button to work there must already have been a checklist generated. If you always ‘generate’ before you ‘download’ you’ll always see the most up to date information.

You can read the evidence checklist on screen by scrolling down the pages using the scroll bar at the side of the screen or you can print or save it by using the buttons available on screen

If you print it, you can use it to make sure you supply all of the mandatory evidence for the claim.

Submit your claim

Once you’ve completed your claim details and the declarations, check your claim summary to make sure that you’re happy with the information you’re going to submit.

Submit - this submits your claim to Natural England and you must now send in all of your evidence and supporting documents.


Withdraw – click to withdraw your claim and not submit to Natural England. The status of your claim will appear in the claim menu as ‘Withdrawn.’ Contact Natural England if you would like to reinstate the claim.

If you see a warning screen after you press submit, you need to read each of the warning messages and take the necessary action before you submit again. Refer to the ‘Confirm’ section of the ‘How to submit your revenue claim online’ guidance for a table of warnings and how to resolve them.

Back – click to return to the Countryside Stewardship Claims screen.

Manage revenue claim confirmation of revenue claim withdraw

If you wish to withdraw your claim, click the green ‘Withdraw’ button under ‘Submit Your Claim’ as shown below:

Answer ‘Yes’ to the warning message that appears on screen:

You will receive an onscreen message confirming that your claim has been successfully withdrawn.

Click ‘Back’ to return to the ‘Countryside Stewardship Claims’ screen. The status of your claim will now be ‘Withdrawn’:

Manage revenue claim confirmation of revenue claim withdraw failure messages

You can withdraw your claim when it is at the following claim status:

n ‘Created’

If you wish to withdraw your claim at any other status, you should contact your local Natural England Technical Services team.

submitting your countryside stewardship revenue claim ... · 2 revenue claim help – gov.uk...

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