FARMERS who have not received their 2015 Basic Payment Scheme money by the end of April will receive a bridging payment of at least 50 per cent of their claim.

Mark Grimshaw, chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), made the announcement at an NFU council meeting on Monday.

The RPA previously rejected calls for partial payments to be made to those still waiting but he said the bridging payments were different.

Mr Grimshaw said that 90 pert cent of claims originally expected to be paid in January, will be paid by the end of April. The remaining ten per cent – some 8,000 farmers – will receive the emergency payment.

Ross Murray, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), welcomed the announcement but said a future review would have to be held into how the situation had arisen.

He said: "Many of the farmers that have still not been paid for work they carried out as long ago as autumn 2014, are in a desperate situation. Given how late this has become, if they can’t be paid in full it is right they receive a bridging payment.

"We are disappointed that yet again emergency measures have become necessary. In due course there will need to be yet another review into how this situation has come to arise.

"We advised the RPA leadership to consider a part payment process for complex claims in the autumn of 2015 and it is important to understand why any action was not taken sooner."

The bulk of those who have still not been paid are those with common land, most of who are sheep farmers.

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association (NSA), said it was still not clear how those affected were supposed to complete their 2016 BPS paperwork ahead of the May 16 deadline.

"Even if they wait until the last possible moment to make their application, there is still no guarantee they will have had sight of their 2015 payment schedule," he said.

"We have unpaid members who strongly suspect there will be errors linked to that payment, yet there seems to be unwillingness at RPA to give them an alternative to submitting paperwork that they know will be wrong."

The RPA has said all BPS claimants must meet the May 16 deadline but those receiving payment after submission could make penalty-free changes up until the end of May, with some allowed beyond that date.

Mr Stocker said: "We do think those farmers specifically affected by failures in the system last year should be given a small amount of flexibility. Asking them to submit paperwork now and then revisit it later is doubling the workload at a very busy time of year."

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) also demanded an extension. George Dunn, chief executive, has written to Farms Minister George Eustice, requesting that Defra asks the European Commission to extend the 2016 deadline to at least the middle of June.

"Without such an extension both the RPA and BPS applicants will be placed under intolerable stress," he said.

Guy Smith, NFU vice-president, wanted to know when the waiting farmers will be fully paid and why a part payment had not been made before.

"More widely we still want to know what the problem is with getting payments out and why the RPA failed to meet promises of payment made as recently as March," he said.