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AbstractThe article critically reviews concepts and uses of the term altruism in relation to the emergence of the capitalist welfare state. It argues that altruism may be regarded as a fetishized representation of 'sociality' and that notions of altruism tend to obscure or distort understandings of the essential social interdependence that characterises humanity as a species. The article reaches back to anthropological evidence, to religious and philosophical influences, and to insights from scientific inquiry and it makes a case for a humanistic switch in perspective within the study of social policy.

The article proceeds from the contention that rights are socially constructed; that social rights are constructed through the naming and claiming of needs; and that social citizenship provides the context for the realisation of such rights. It is argued that needs precede rights, but both are framed within two intersecting dimensions: sociality (the competing meanings that attach to social interdependency) and negotiation (the dynamics of the claiming process). From this premise, the article advances a post‐Marshallian concept of citizenship that is truly social; that may be constituted in a variety of modes and at a variety of sites at the points at which competing understandings of needs and rights collide; that may transcend territorial boundaries; that may be shaped by a spectrum of means, ranging from local customs to international covenants; that may be centred on a politics of need as the process whereby needs are translated into rights.

Universal Credit is a proposed means‐tested cash benefit scheme in the UK that will serve, inter alia, to top‐up the wages of low‐paid workers. This article will argue first, that the moral justification for the scheme that is offered by the UK government is specious; second that the reconfiguration of existing wage top‐ups may be counterproductive and will in any event do little, if anything, to promote the work ethic; third, that the new scheme will not relieve but add to the injustices borne by the 'precariat' (the workers engaged in low‐paid precarious employment); finally, that far from having a justifiable moral purpose, Universal Credit is ethically flawed.

A key policy response to the downward pressure on wages of the lowest-paid workers in the developed economies of the capitalist world has been the introduction of meanstested cash transfer schemes by which to top up low wages. Findings from a study of the experiences of the beneficiaries of a particular scheme (the United Kingdom's Working Tax Credit) suggest that, although schemes may serve to relieve the poverty of low-paid workers and their families, the extent to which they promote the accessibility of 'decent work' is ambiguous.