Kirsty Bosley: Is there any real benefit to snitching on a cheat?

As the buses trundle in and out of the station, we're asked: 'THINK YOU KNOW A WALSALL BENEFITS CHEAT? REPORT THEM ANONYMOUSLY'.

Now, I'm a relatively normal, tax-paying citizen. I feel like I should be really angry at scammers, dodgers and those that abuse the system I've been paying into for years.

But the fact of the matter is, I'm not. There are worse scammers to be annoyed at.

Regularly, some Facebook friend or other will post their fury about 'working hard for nothing while people who don't work get to smoke 20-a-day and get tattoos'.

I have seen it myself, just by popping into the pub.

There are guys that go to my local who are there every day, having a few pints and laughs with their friends while they watch football on the telly. They don't work, they just divvy up their jobseeker's allowance, disability benefits, other incomes to be able to afford beers.

I can see why this annoys my friends, who feel hard done by because they work for their wage and have to pay out more than someone who doesn't work at all.

I personally don't feel affronted by it; it's small scale compared to the big, corporate swindlers who are getting away without paying a proportionate amount of tax. Scot free, too.

I assume that the calls this hotline receives are driven solely by spite. I don't think those ringing it just want what's best for everyone, or are calling it out of genuine concern. You don't get a bonus for doing so, and you won't get your tax lowered because you've dobbed in that guy Steve you hate for taking a £50 backhander after cutting someone's grass while he's on the dole.

There's so much mass media devised to make us hate our neighbours. We hear about 'scroungers' all the time, how they have their boobs done on the NHS or get taxis to take their kids to school or other such expenditure.

And now Benefits Street is back on Channel 4, we can sit down and watch a man called Maxwell claiming income support and disability benefits while smoking a big fat bong.

Should we get mad at Max?

I'm no expert, but from what I understand, there are a lot of big corporations routing their profits to tax havens, paying less and pocketing more. A hell of a lot more.

Not like the few quid that your neighbour is scamming having her boyfriend staying over for a few too many nights a week. Or that man on disability benefits that forgets he needs to use his walking stick after six pints of John Smiths.

Why aren't we getting mad at the big corporations instead? Is it because it has no hateful face that we can picture when we ring that number? Is there a hotline we can call to spill our fury about that?

Or are we, instead, going to complain about our neighbours and grass them up because we've seen them digging their flowerbeds when they're supposed to be incapacitated?

I'm not saying that scamming the system is OK; it isn't on any scale. But why are we, by use of bus adverts, encouraged to police the issue like a benefit Batman while big businesses are scooping millions?