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Young farmers in Northern Ireland are set to get a cash boost from changes to the Young Farmers’ Payment by DAERA.
Successful applicants for the Young Farmers’ Payment YFP will now receive the payment for five years following their first successful application to the scheme.
Until now, the five-year period would have been reduced had the young farmer been farming as head of holding for a time before first submitting an application.
Extra payment
The change means that, for example, a young farmer who has been head of holding for four years when submitting a successful firsttime application for YFP will now receive the payment for the subsequent five years, compared to only one year under previous rules.
The change will also be applied retrospectively to successful first-time applications for YFP in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The Department will be contacting those applicants who are now due a payment in 2016 and 2017 scheme years.
The changes come about as a result of amendments agreed in Brussels to EU regulations in December 2017.
DAERA has said it is important that applicants who have been accepted for YFP in previous years and are now eligible for YFP in 2018 make an application for YFP on the online 2018 Single Application Form.
Young Farmers Clubs
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster President James Speers said he welcomed the developement.
"This is something we have been lobbying for for a long time. It is a clear commitment from the Department and a postive step.
"The old system penalised people that had been working in the industry as head of a holding by not allowing them the top-up," Speers concluded.
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