THE deadline for Single Payment Scheme applications is a week tomorrow - but as many as 100,000 could still be outstanding.

On Wednesday Johnston McNeill, chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency, expressed concern about the pressure his staff would be under during a last-minute rush.

And he stressed that he did not expect the EU to alter the May 16 deadline.

"Following a high-level meeting on Tuesday afternoon, I have no indication that there will be any extension to the deadline," he said.

He also warned that, although late applications would be dealt with until June 10, the original financial penalty of 1pc per working day had been increased to 4pc.

"It could take only a few days before you could be talking about a substantial amount," said Mr McNeill.

The RPA sent out 100,000 application forms to existing customers but had received a further 80,000 hits to the web site.

"We do not know how many of those may be duplicates or new entrants but, at this stage, we think the total number of applications may be 140,000," said Mr McNeill.

By Tuesday the RPA had received only about 20,000 applications, but a percentage had to be returned because of errors - many of them as simple as sections not being signed by the applicant or corrections not dated and initialled.

Mr McNeill urged applicants to check carefully through the form before sending it off, making sure all the relevant sections had been completed and signed. "Over-sign, rather than under-sign," he said.

Applicants who felt they needed to clarify or explain a point could include a signed note.

He also urged them to keep a copy of the form so that, if the RPA had a query, both parties would have the application in front of them.

Mr McNeill accepted there had been initial problems with applications, but this had not been so for the last 12 to 14 days.

The RPA's customer service centre now has 400 staff working seven days a week and callers to the helpline - 0845 603 7777 - are answered quickly.

"On Tuesday we took 10,700 calls," said Mr McNeill. "The longest queue time we have had is two minutes but we have found some people hang up after 15 seconds."

He repeated his call for farmers to submit their application forms as soon as possible ahead of the May 16 deadline.

The customer service centre is open from 7.30am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm at weekends.

Application forms are available from RPA offices, including Northallerton, or can be downloaded from the RPA web site at www.rpa.gov.uk.