NGCOBO J home in South Africa for their families; indeed, members of this group may well elect to become permanent residents. Both groups of non-citizens are under the Constitution entitled to socio-economic rights. The crucial question is whether social security benefits should be made available to every person who is within our borders. In my view, the state has successfully advanced compelling reasons for limiting the benefits to citizens. The need to reduce the rising costs of operating social security systems, the need to prevent the availability of social security benefits from constituting an incentive for immigration and the need to encourage the immigrants to be self-sufficient. [127] The state is justifiably concerned about the impact of providing social security benefits to non-citizens on the state finance and its ability to provide expenditure on other socio-economic rights. Mr Kruger, the Chief Director of Social Services in the National Treasury, tells us that the war on poverty has led to a substantial and rapid increase in expenditure. Expenditure on social grants has increased from R16.1 billion to R26.2 billion and this is expected to increase to R44.6 billion over the next three years. These figures show an increasing demand for social grants. [128] There is a paucity of information concerning the number of persons who might qualify for grants if they are extended to permanent residents. This is not surprising. Mr Kruger however estimates that the annual costs of including permanent residents could range between R243 million and R672 million. 78