The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme (LEAP) is a social protection intervention implemented by the Government of Ghana to provide cash grants to impoverished and vulnerable households to alleviate economic and social distress. Piloted in 2008 and currently in its 15th year, the program targets vulnerable groups such as orphaned children, breastfeeding mothers, old people, and people with severe disabilities by providing cash payments every two months to eligible households in various districts across the country. Underpinned by the Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT) this study utilized in-depth interviews with women (n=25) to examine the potential effects of relative deprivation created by the LEAP support in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The findings show that there is a feeling of unfairness in the selection process, and this creates the notion of favoritism towards beneficiaries by the LEAP officials. Non-beneficiaries thus habour resentment against the program and beneficiaries which translates into the stereotyping of beneficiaries, and social tension within the local communities. Yet the LEAP beneficiaries who are now considered to be ‘better off’ have to deal with social expectations within their households and communities at large. Collectively, these emerging challenges are having emotional distress and psychosocial health effects on women LEAP beneficiaries. These challenges and expectations have the potential to erode social cohesion while undermining the program’s objective of reducing poverty and underlying deprivation. The findings call for increasing the enrollment of beneficiaries and increasing education on social protection programs to minimize the current negative public perception of LEAP recipients.