Submit your claim
Information about how to submit your claim form
Remember to sign and date the Declaration section in the claim form if you are submitting your claim by either email or post. Send your completed claim (include all pages), supporting documents and any evidence that needs to be submitted, to reach RPA by the ‘Claim by’ deadline date in your agreement document.
IMPORTANT – 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.
If you received your claim from us by email
‘Reply’ to that email, attaching your completed documents to it. Remember to print the Declaration section, then sign and date it. Scan it into your computer as well as the supporting documents and evidence that need to be submitted. By ‘replying’ to the email we sent to you, rather than sending us a new email, your claim will be automatically forwarded to the correct team, and not have to wait in a queue to be sorted manually. For more information about submitting evidence by email read the ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ 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 2022 Capital 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’ section.
If you received your claim by post and cannot submit it by email, you can post it to: Rural Payments Agency (Countryside Stewardship), 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.
We’ll contact you if we have any queries.
We’ll 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 Countryside Stewardship claims screen as your claim progresses through the following stages.
- Submitted
You’ve submitted your claim, supporting documents and any evidence that needs to be submitted, to reach RPA before the ‘claim by’ date in your agreement document.
- Claim validation
Your claim, supporting documents, and any evidence that needed to be 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 RPA using details from the ‘More information, contact details and data protection’ section.