A person who fulfils all of the statutory provisions for a given contingency based social welfare scheme is entitled to that payment for the duration of the period they continue to satisfy those requirements.
In addition, the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme provides support for persons who are unable to meet their needs. If entitlement to this payment was to be removed, this would mean that the welfare system would not be in a position to provide support to a person even when they were unable to meet their basic needs in a given period. Such a step would represent a major change to the underlying principles of the SWA scheme.
A person who has been found guilty in court of social welfare fraud is subject to the penalties imposed by the court in relation to the crime committed. While the Department would aim to recover any monies which had been fraudulently received it would not be appropriate for the Department to apply further penalties over and above those imposed by the Court.