European states are facing challenges how to successfully restructure their welfare systems in times of numerous external and internal pressures, among them especially the demographic pressure and the impact of global economic crisis. Slovenia was one of European countries that were hit hardest by the crisis in 2009. Likewise, Slovenia is facing severe challenges regarding population ageing. In the paper, we are interested in people’s attitudes toward the existing welfare policies, as well as their preferences for the future development of the Slovenian welfare state and whether the implemented policies differ from people’s attitudes taking into account the potential trade-offs between the social protection paradigm on one side and the social investment paradigm on the other. The analysis utilised data gathered with the method of deliberative forums that were carried out in 2015. Deliberative forums allow a ‘bottom-up’ approach to research. Our analysis shows that there is a discrepancy between ordinary citizens’ expectations for the future development of the Slovenian welfare state and the actual direction of the reforms, which could become one of the most salient issues for the legitimacy of the future Slovenian welfare state.