Apologies for the long title. Just wondering what people think on the following. The reason I ask is I work in recruitment. I recently offered a guy a position in a company. It was a 40hour a week entry level role on €21,000 a year the guy had been unemployed for over 7 months. During interview stage he said he was happy with salary being offered. Anyway we officially offered him the position to which he turned down based on the following. He was earning approx €17,000 a year on benefits as he was unemployed he was having most of his mortgage paid for him via social welfare. He was also paying massively reduced amounts on his bank loans due to being unemployed and also had a medical card etc this would all be affected if he returned to work. Is this really the way the country is at the moment? Are people happier staying at home in bed on the dole than out working?