STRUGGLING farmers are facing further hardship after a huge backlog of claims has delayed compensation payments running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

The Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) originally promised that farmers whose livestock were culled to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth would receive compensation within a fortnight.

But some farmers are still waiting for payment two months later, after only two officials were originally assigned to deal with the claims.

And Maff yesterday admitted there had also been delays in paying slaughtermen and contractors used to dispose of the carcasses of culled animals.

The backlog is the latest in a long line of criticisms over the way Maff has handled the crisis.

Colin Firby, who farms at Etherley, near Bishop Auckland, lost about 1,400 animals when his premises was confirmed as having foot-and-mouth on April 3.

He said he was told the compensation would come through within a fortnight, but when he contacted Maff last week they said they had no indication of when he would be paid.

Mr Firby said: "They said they were absolutely snowed under but the last stock we sold was February 15 and all businesses need cash flow.

"It was traumatic enough to lose your stock but to lose them and not get paid for them just makes it much worse."

The £100,000 he is expecting will be needed to restock the farm.

A farmer from Richmond in North Yorkshire, who asked not to be named, said her stock had been culled on April 13, but she had been told it could be another ten to 12 weeks before the compensation comes through.

Richard Watts, Darlington NFU secretary, said he was aware of one farmer whose stock had been culled on March 14 but was still waiting for compensation.

He said: "Farmers will be running up their bank overdrafts and it is costing them money until the payments come in."

Northallerton NFU secretary Peter Edmonds said: "Many farmers have no income coming in at all and if they have got nothing to live off they are in real trouble.

"They have been under severe pressure and this is another hardship which is making it much worse."

An NFU North-East spokes-man said its latest information was that 3,800 compensation claims were still outstanding.

A Maff spokesman said originally only two staff had been checking compensation claims but this has now been increased to about 40.

He said: "Due to the sheer weight of numbers of claims, there is a backlog and we have taken on extra staff, working shifts seven days a week."

He said £126m has already been paid to farmers whose animals were culled, but they estimate the total compensation bill will reach £668m.

There had also been problems in processing payments for slaughtermen and contractors who have helped build funeral pyres or bury livestock.

"We recognise that we have not been able to pay every claim as quickly as we would like and we're taking on more staff to deal with that," he said.

Farms are not the only businesses to have been hit by foot-and-mouth.

And ironically, a survey has found that while over a third of rural business said they had been affected, only five per cent had applied for temporary deferment of tax, VAT and National Insurance payments. Only six per cent had applied for business rate relief.

* Three more cases of foot-and-mouth were confirmed over the weekend in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Cases were discovered at Viewley Hill Farm, High Worsall, Yarm; Cockley Bank Farm, Rathwell, Settle; and Haughfield Farm, Coniston Cold, Skipton.

Read more about the foot-and-mouth crisis here.