Help Big Brother catch benefit cheats

The Department of Social Security is taking its grass-up- benefit-cheats campaign onto the Internet.

Now you can tell tales from the anonymity of your own PC, simply by filling out the reporting form at targetingfraud.gov.uk.

Apparently, more than 80 per year is lost to every household in Britain as a direct result of people cheating the system.

That's what Social Security Minister Jeff Rooker says. And who are we to argue? He is confident that the new service will be put to "good use by all the honest citizens who are fed-up with being taken for a ride by fraudsters".

That's where we beg to differ. This is a charter for false accusers.

Oh but who's going to use this service? People with PCs and Internet access often don't live in areas of high deprivation where most benefit cheats are, one would think, located.

Never mind. Poor people can carry on snitching at the National Benefit Fraud Hotline on 0800 854440. ®