"… no legal right to social security benefits and benefits are part of government spending program, no different in the eyes of the law than corporate welfare or farm subsidies".
See: Flemming v. Nestor 1
In South Africa, courts have in other similar social security decisions like the Soobramoney v. Min. Health, KwaZulu-Natal 2 case upheld and concurred with the ratio decidendi provided in Flemming v. Nestor decision. Further in Flemming v. Nestor, the court had held in obiter that "the right to social security (benefits) is in one sense earned, for the entire scheme rests on the legislative judgment that those who in their productive years were functioning members of the economy may justly call upon that economy in their later years, for protection from rigors of the poor house as well as from the haunting fear that such a lot awaits them when journey’s end is near"3. In South African context and in many other countries, this obiter refers to pay-as-you-go system.
