I don't know if this would hold for a universal social services infrastructure.
My personal analysis is that I would tend towards decentralization via cash payments, so as to enable choice, and not have the state takeover the potential economic activities enabled by such cash payments. Nobody wants to be given food from a government kitchen or government food box, but most people, I would think, would not mind getting $X per week/month/year to supplement their other income from the government.
But in context of democratic, developed states and cities; UBI/welfare is not a good solution. Minimum social infrastructure is what we should strive towards. So, when people fall from safety nets; that fall can be contained. With passage of time; we can work towards elevating that net further.
Minimum social infrastructure elevates the bottom for everyone. If people can rise from that bottom further, maybe we can work towards elevating the bottom further and further as time passes.