Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if social welfare benefits are withheld from convicts while they are in prison; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33137/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Social welfare legislation provides that a person is disqualified from receipt of social welfare payments while undergoing imprisonment or detention in legal custody. An exception to this general principle is provided for in cases where a period of imprisonment is being served in place of payment of a fine.

Notwithstanding the above, the qualification criteria for various schemes would automatically disqualify a person in such circumstances; for example, the requirement to be available for full-time work (jobseeker's payments) or the requirement to be employed for a minimum of 19 hours per week (family income supplement).

In other cases such as child benefit, where the qualified person, usually the child's mother, is imprisoned or detained, the payment is transferred to the appropriate person with whom the child resides for the relevant period.