Constraints and creativity. Social ties in monetary transfers to the poor

Purpose This article aims to examine how constraints attached to minimum-income transfers shape the economic lives of poor households. Focusing on the Italian Citizenship Income, it analyses how spending restrictions affect recipients' dignity and how beneficiaries interpret and navigate these limits through everyday practices. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on 209 semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries, social workers and employment centre operators conducted across four Italian regions. The analysis uses reflexive thematic coding and is guided by the relational work framework to interpret how constraints and practices shape the meanings of welfare money. Findings I show how top-down earmarking channels minimum-income funds toward basic survival, reinforcing institutional control and beneficiaries' marginal social position. At the same time, bottom-up earmarking enables recipients to creatively convert constrained money into flexible resources, opening small spaces of freedom and partially overcoming restrictive welfare arrangements. Originality/value The article applies the notion of relational work to state-beneficiary economic exchanges. Building on Zelizer's idea of money as socially shaped and marked by the relationships through which it circulates, it reveals what this means for recipients of social aid.