ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns the fact that the majority of discretionary SF payments were to be loans. There are several reasons for the focus upon loans. First, and as is discussed more fully below, there is a need to address a misconception that the introduction of loans in the discretionary SF denoted a new or novel method of relieving the needs of income poor people. Second, the payment of loans to people who by their very definition are among the poorest people in society is problematic on a number of levels, some of which have already been noted, but also because the inherent instabilities of capitalism, as demonstrated in the current economic crisis, highlight how problematic a system of loaning social assistance to people who can ill-afford to repay it is.
