This mixed-methods longitudinal study sought to understand the impact of a one-time debt relief on chronically indebted, low-income households in Singapore. Through a comprehensive household financial survey that included measures of cognitive functioning, risk-taking, and psychosocial functioning of over 200 debt relief program beneficiaries, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with selected respondents, researchers established that debt relief led to immediate improvements in cognitive functioning, reduction in symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, risk aversion and present-biasedness immediately after debt relief. The effects were more strongly related to the number of types of debts cleared than the magnitude of debts cleared. Overall the study shows that debt creates bandwidth tax on the indebted poor, impairing their cognitive performance and affects their decision-making, and a debt relief program which targets at reducing debt accounts may be more effective in alleviating the cognitive load of the poor. Analysis on debt relief beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries one year later is in progress.