Those ads for tax credit renewal have been plaguing our ears again. The deadline is today. But with the ads still ringing in our ears, maybe now is a good time to consider if there is a better way of doing things than the current benefit systems.

In principle, there is nothing wrong with the idea of redistributing wealth, but the current system has enormous drawbacks. It is time the government accepted the problem for what it is, and applied some real creative thinking. The suggestion below is controversial, but before you rush off an email lambasting us for our cavalier attitude, just bear in mind that in some regions of the UK, living off benefit is the culture. It is costing taxpayers a fortune. Only a creative solution can fix this.

The real problem with benefit is not the cheats at all, it's the lack of incentive to get off benefit.

For some people, it must feel as if they would be worse off if they got a job.

The benefits people often treat their customers like they are scroungers, and in this environment of mistrust are rarely forthcoming in providing claimants with information on what they would be able to receive if they did such and such a thing.

In this environment of ignorance, ignorance engendered by the benefits office, claimants are just not sure what would happen if they got a job. Would their benefits cease? Or just fall?

If they get a job at the wrong time of the year, say February, then the resulting cut in benefit, backdated to the beginning of the financial year, can cause the newly employed true hardship in the short-term.

With working family tax credit, the same applies to promotion.

Take as an example, carers allowance. Those people who are responsible for caring for someone else can claim up to £50 a week. But if their earnings are over £100 a week the benefit stops. So for someone on this allowance, there is no incentive to take a job paying slightly more than £100 a week.

The worst case scenario might be a part-time carer earning, say, £99 a week, who considers working an extra few hours, and then quickly drops the idea when they realise benefit will stop.

We all hear stories of people on disability allowance or who do part-time work - maybe most of us know of people falling into this category. Yet, maybe the disability is genuine, or comes and goes, and the work they do is poorly paid, and piecemeal. The temptation not to declare this income is enormous.

As a result of the current systems you have areas of the UK, cities such as Hull, where the culture is to rely on benefit. Unemployment shows no sign of falling.

If we could somehow incentivise these people to work, the savings in the longer-term would be enormous. Tax receipts would rise rapidly.

And maybe then the government might want to consider a system of gradually phasing out benefit to people whose circumstances have changed.

If you get a job, or a promotion, benefit payments will continue at their previous level for a few months, and then gradually reduce.

Maybe the government should consider an amnesty for people on disability allowance who do part time work. Most people in this situation are no doubt scared they will be caught out, but can not afford to stop. The resultant cost to the system is enormous.

In short - the government needs to wean people off benefit. Let them enjoy a windfall when they gain employment - there is nothing like such a windfall to encourage them to seek work.

Some will continue to cheat the system. But surely the biggest problem with the long-term unemployed is that it becomes a habit. The government needs to break this habit. It will entail a jump in public spending for a while, but in the medium-term the savings and extra tax revenue that will result should easily compensate for this.

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