Moral Capital and the Struggle to Convert in Welfare Encounters

This article examines how long-term welfare recipients attempt to convert cultural, social, economic, and symbolic resources within a welfare system shaped by moral evaluation and routine monitoring. Drawing on 216 in-depth interviews from the Netherlands, the study posits moral capital as institutionally attributed credibility, produced through welfare officials’ assessments of claimants’ honesty, effort, and cooperation. I identify five strategies: navigating classifications, managing reciprocity, drawing moral boundaries, resisting or adapting to administrative demands, and seeking work to restore standing. Across these strategies, clients show constrained agency as deservingness judgments filter and reclassify their efforts, shaping whether resources generate recognition or remain ineffective. The findings show how moral assessment governs access to support and opportunities and suggest that trust, continuity of contact, and context-sensitive discretion are central to reducing misclassification and enabling more stable pathways out of long-term dependence.