Some farmers or family members who unsuccessfully submitted applications for Discrimination Financial Assistance Program payments are being told the program will be reopened in September so that more payments can be made.

Unfortunately, those statements are false. USDA says all of the funding authorized for the payments under Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act was dispersed in July and no more funding is available.

“In late July, the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program distributed financial assistance to more than 43,000 people in all 50 states and several territories,” a USDA spokesman said in response to a query. “The assistance will help many of them continue farming or enhance their operations, begin farming or ease lost income because of loan denials.

“While the program was able to help thousands of people, we are aware of scams misleading people to believe the program will reopen, and that some may have collected fees from potential applicants under false pretenses.”

Contact Inspector General

The spokesman said: “Anyone who believes they were scammed, or who suspects fraud, should report cases to USDA’s Office of Inspector General so that it can be investigated.”

Throughout the signup period, which began in July of 2023 and ended on Jan. 17 of this year, applicants were advised they did not have to pay anyone to assist them in completing an application or to give them updates on the processing of their submissions.

Related:USDA makes DFAP payments to 37,647 producers in the South

USDA Farm Service Agency personnel made numerous presentations along with members of the Farmers Legal Action Group, the National Black Farmers Association and other organizations to help farmers understand and complete the 40-page application that had to be filed electronically or by mail at no charge.

Nonetheless, other organizations charged would-be applicants for those services. Some law firms ran commercials during local news broadcasts, advising viewers they could be eligible for DFAP payments and to contact the firms’ offices for assistance.

In one case, a Memphis, Tenn., resident whose deceased father-in-law had been denied a loan by USDA’s Farmers Home Administration in the 1980s paid a representative of a local chapter of another Black farmers group $260 to complete an application on behalf of her father-in-law’s estate.

Part of the $260 was applied to a $100 membership fee for the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, the organization which completed the application, and the remainder for filing the application.

Related:USDA receives 58,000 requests for discrimination assistance

“She innocently paid $260 to a Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association representative to complete a DFAP application in October of 2023,” said Kara Boyd, program director for the National Black Farmers Association. “She believed this was the correct process to apply based on information provided by the BFAA and their representatives.”

Submitted form

Boyd said the woman contacted the National Black Farmers Association, which is not affiliated with the BFAA, after she learned the application completed in October was not submitted to the USDA DFAP vendors until several months after the Jan. 17 deadline.

When the woman contacted the BFAA about the late filing and subsequent denial letter from USDA, she said she was informed her application “was still in the portal and would be paid in September when the process reopened.”

She and her husband were also given information about subscribing to the BFAA newsletter so they could join Zoom calls to receive updates about DFAP program developments at a cost of $10.99 per month.

“The National Black Farmers Association has worked tirelessly for decades to address false and misleading information regarding Black farmers and the Pigford class action lawsuit and more recently in Re Black farmers discrimination litigation after the May 11, 2012, filing deadline,” said Boyd. “It is alarming that thousands of farmers may have been misled during the $2.2-billion Discrimination Financial Assistance Program.”

She said it’s also troubling that the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program vendors mailed a denial letter to a person who was deceased. “It makes you wonder if the DFAP vendors properly vetted the recipients.”

Boyd also noted there was no space on the 40-page form to indicate the applicant was deceased.

Representatives of the BFAA were contacted for comments but had not responded at press time.