Chapter 6 examines requesting benefits, a key mechanism by which citizens help to sustain relational clientelism. Even in rural Northeast Brazil, an area not traditionally known for high levels of voter autonomy, the majority of citizens who receive handouts had asked politicians for help. Citizens’ demands are frequently motivated by vulnerability: most requests involve life necessities, such as water and medicine, and they spike during adverse shocks. Evidence is consistent with both relational clientelism and the logic of screening elaborated in Chapter 3. Analyses suggest that during both election and non-election years, requesters disproportionately receive help, with declared supporters as more likely recipients. Interviews provide insight about the screening role of requests in ongoing clientelist relationships, and regressions show that survey respondents often espouse negative perceptions of politicians who deny their requests, and refuse to vote for them. By eliciting information about politicians’ trustworthiness, requesting benefits enables citizens to mitigate an important threat to the survival of relational clientelism.