This chapter examines several issues by focusing upon the ways in which the introduction of SF loans have helped or hindered social assistance claimants to relieve their expressed needs. It examines the monitoring projects that existed as collaborative projects between academics, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations when the SF was first introduced. The chapter focuses upon what might be described as the more positive aspects of SF loans. It also focuses upon the problematic aspects of SF loans. The chapter also examines the ways in which SF loans leave needs unrelieved, how they force people further into debt and administrative problems that have been identified because of the centralising of SF loans administration to a small number of BDCs. It assesses the ways in which SF loans may or may not help to tackle benefit dependency.