Dog Qualifying For Unemployment In Michigan Will Make You ‘Paws’

SAUGATUCK, MI — So many questions leap out after Ryder, a dog in Michigan, qualified for a cool $360 a week in unemployment benefits. Would he sign his checks with his paw? How would Ryder go about applying for jobs, as required to continue receiving benefits? Would he blow the weekly benefits on dog bones and chew toys?

The answers: No, he won’t and no. Ryder’s owner, Michael Haddock, caught the epic mistake and notified Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency, which had already flagged the claim. Haddock, an attorney in Saugatuck, recently received a letter saying “Michael Ryder” — his first name and the German Shepherd’s name — was entitled to benefits.

Haddock had a good laugh over the situation. Patch reached out to Haddock, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.

“Not sure what he is going to do with the money, but it should be interesting,” Haddock told WZZM-TV after he received a letter indicating the dog qualified for unemployment benefits. “I knew he was clever, but he surprised me this time.”

Chris DeWitt, a spokesman for Michigan’s Talent and Investment Agency, which oversees UIA, acknowledged a “humorous side to this from the standpoint of man’s best friend.”

“In this particular case, there was no harm to the dog, the dog’s family or the state, because no benefits were paid out,” DeWitt told Patch.

But fraudulent claims to unemployment bureaus across the country and the IRS are on the rise after a spate of data breaches “involving millions of individuals’ information that criminals stole and are either using it on their own to obtain monies, or selling it to others who will use it to acquire benefits.”

Last year, personal information for as many as 1.9 million people was compromised when Michigan’s unemployment database was breached. Far larger was the Equifax data breach, which affected 143 million Americans.

“Unfortunately, we’re not alone,” DeWitt said.

Though the letter confirming benefits went out to “Michael Ryder,” the claim had been flagged as potentially fraudulent, DeWitt said. The story gained traction when Haddock posted a picture of his dog on Facebook and it was picked up by a local television station.

The claim is under investigation by the Talent Investment Agency’s new Investigations Division, DeWitt said.

See Also: Pets Should Get Food Stamps, Online Petitioner Argues

Photo via Shutterstock