This CASE Brief summarises Kate Summers’ doctoral research. The research aimed to develop a detailed picture of how working-age social security benefit recipients understand and use their money. Forty-three indepth, qualitative interviews were conducted with working-age social security recipients living across east London. Participants were asked about the processes of receiving, organising, and using their social security money. The focus was on building a detailed, micro, account of money in people’s day to day lives.