FARMERS and crofters who have experienced a reduction in their Voluntary Coupled Support payments will soon hear from the Scottish Government exactly why those reductions were made.

Affected claimants will receive letters or emails explaining why reductions or exclusions were applied to both the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) and the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS) between 2015 – 2019.

These letters for the 2015-2019 scheme years will start to issue from next Monday, November 23.

Letters or emails relating to the 2020 scheme year will be issued after the relevant payments have been made. The 2020 scheme payments, for both SUSSS and SSBSS, are due to start in April/May 2021.

For more details please go to the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments site: www.ruralpayments.org