Chris Grover critically reflects on the introduction of the Social Fund and its operation in the past two decades, engaging with the argument that was made in the 1980s that relieving need by way of loan was new in social security policy. Using primary data hitherto ignored by social policy research, he locates Social Fund loans in a lengthy history of debate about, and practice in, loaning poor relief and social security. Understanding this history will give a greater depth to our understanding of the state's purposes in relieving the poorest people as well as to our knowledge of contemporary social security policy.