Pensioners who end up in prison after the age of 60 feel cheated by the system which prevents them from receiving their pension while they are behind bars.

George Busuttil from Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl, an NGO that campaigns for prisoners’ interests, said a pension was a right: “What we find unfair is that these men would have paid their social security contribution for all their working life, sometimes since the age of 16.”

He said Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl would like to mount a court challenge but pensioners in jail were reluctant to face another court case plus expenses while the NGO could not open the case on their behalf.

While understanding that the government might be disinclined to pay the full pension in order to make up for prison expenses, Mr Busuttil suggested that a portion of the pension should still paid to inmates.

A spokesman for the Social Policy Ministry, however, said the Social Security Act made it clear that a person should be “disqualified from receiving a pension, benefit, allowance or assistance payable for any period during which he is undergoing imprisonment or detention”.

The law also states that the wife of an incarcerated pensioner is entitled to half the pension payable to her husband.

The spokesman confirmed that the law did not draw a distinction between those who paid their taxes for a lifetime and other inmates who did not.

“It is pertinent to note that there might be cases where the loss of the full pension to a person who is serving a prison term will result in less income in a household and they thus become eligible for certain social benefits which are means tested,” the spokesman said.

Jane*, the relative of a pensioner who was jailed for two years for criminal damage, believes the system is unfair.

Her relative had led an exemplary life and paid his dues to society throughout his working life. Then, after turning 60, he committed a crime and ended up in prison.

Apart from having to pay for his mistake by serving time, he lost the pension he was entitled to, she said.

“One may argue that the government is paying for his food and accommodation while he is in prison. I can see the logic behind that argument, but there is a counter argument to it.

“The government is also paying for those prisoners who never worked an honest day in their lives and never paid their dues to society, unlike this man,” Jane said.

*Not her real name