Most voters believe the welfare state will have shrunk or have been almost wiped out within a generation, polling has found.
Some 87% of adults thought the system was "facing severe problems", rising to 94% among the over-55s, research commissioned by Christian think tank Theos found.
The majority, 68%, believe claimants should only benefit from state services if they have paid into the system, even if they are in real need, and the same amount said welfare should be a "safety net for only the poorest and neediest", according to the ComRes poll.
But half the population believe the wealthy should be able to receive benefits if they have paid taxes.
The findings comes as Prime Minister David Cameron was moved to defended the Government's welfare reforms in the face of criticism from the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Nearly six in 10 voters believed pensions, the NHS, tax credits, child benefit, disability living allowance and unemployment benefit, would be cut or have virtually disappeared within three decades, the poll found.
About one third believed politicians were "mainly to blame", while a fifth said false claimants were responsible, 16% blamed "benefits tourists" and 15% said the European Union was at fault.
Theos director Elizabeth Oldfield said: "We need to think carefully about what welfare is for."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article