Accompanying the diminishing voice of the client in cross-subsidized social work, the author makes an attempt to reveal the ambivalence and ambiguity of state-sponsored social work in Hong Kong. In light of the increase in quasi-welfare markets that promote an environment of competitive bidding on government subventions, this article addresses the contradictions between commercial and social work values after the commodification of welfare. Because frontline practitioners are becoming more reluctant to be involved in ‘typical’ social work interventions, reconsidering and recalculating costs are recommended under the pendulum of left and right ideologies in a postcolonial, neoliberal metropolis.