This chapter introduces the concept of “surveillant care” to analyze fundamental shifts in contemporary social policy. Through three interconnected analyses, it examines the transformation from rights-based welfare to eligibility-based conditional provision, revealing how social care has evolved into a sophisticated governance mechanism. The first section traces the movement from right to eligibility, demonstrating how universal provision has been replaced by targeted interventions requiring behavioral compliance and continuous monitoring. The second section explores social care as a biopolitical technology that produces specific forms of subjectivity through activation policies and self-regulation practices. The third section provides historical perspective on the transition from traditional philanthropy based on moral judgment of the “deserving poor” to contemporary technocratic assessment of “activated beneficiaries.” Drawing on Foucauldian concepts of biopolitics and governmentality, the analysis reveals how surveillant care functions as a hybrid mechanism that simultaneously protects and controls, presenting discipline as empowerment while producing entrepreneurial subjects. The chapter demonstrates how contemporary social policy operates not merely as resource redistribution but as a technology of subjectification that reshapes citizenship itself.