No matter how hard I try, I can& #39;t make the Job Support Scheme work, mathematically.

If I& #39;m a business with 2 employees, and I have enough work for 1, I have two choices - employ one at 100%, or both at 50% hours. /1

If I employ one at 100%, I& #39;ll be paying 100% of one salary for 100% of one person& #39;s worth of work (and get a £1,000 bonus from the government). /2

If I employ both at 50%, I& #39;ll be paying 50% + (1/3 * 2/3 * 50%) = 50% + 11.1% = 61.1% of two salaries, for a total of 122.2% of a single salary, for one person& #39;s worth of work (and get a £2,000 bonus from the government). /3

So unless my workers are paid less than £10,000 per year, it remains more cost-effective for me to simply make one person redundant and keep one person employed. Which seems, to me, to defeat the purpose of the scheme. /4