Workfare has become a dominant social welfare approach in dealing with unemployment in various cities around the world. Recent social security reforms for lone mothers on benefits in Hong Kong are examples of the application of workfare in practice. This article argues that workfare strategy based on an outdated industrial-productivist conception of work contributes to the marginalization and undervaluation of work performed by disadvantaged groups. A reconceptualization of work will help to open up new alternatives in social work practice.