If you are a freelancer or going into freelancing, then you will need to take out freelancer insurance. TechRound details everything you need to know right here. You can contact us to get in touch with one of our partners at: [email protected].
Being a freelancer comes with lots of benefits and gives you a lot of flexibility in your work life. You also get to work with a whole host of different clients, work on a variety of projects and visit a range of locations to work from. When you freelance, you are essentially your own boss. Therefore, you can choose the hours you work and for which clients. Due to all of this, there is no surprise to learn that there are now almost 5 million freelancers working in the UK alone.
However, it is very important to make sure you that you have insurance in place. This is because it could be very costly if something were to go wrong and you do not want to find yourself caught up in a legal battle. Being a freelancer suggest that you hold quite specific skills and using different equipment or providing expertise can potentially lead to financial losses or damages to the client or even a member of society. Furthermore, as you do not have a regular or steady income, having that insurance is vital to protect your business and your salary.
If you are Hiring Freelancers
Additionally, if your company does hire a freelancer on a regular basis, you may need to seek insurance which is specific to this and you can put them under your employer’s liability policy. In the event that your Freelancer does not have insurance and causes damage or injury to a client or a member of the public, you will be covered for this.
What Freelancer Insurance Cover is Available?
Depending on your policy, you should be entitled to thousands or millions of pounds worth of cover – how much you require will depend on the size of your company. So, if you are an individual freelancer or you work with other types of businesses.
The options for freelance insurance are as follows:
• Public Liability
• Professional indemnity
• Contents and Equipment cover
• Business Interruption
Now, let us look into these in more detail so that you know what kind of cover is going to be best for you and your situation.
Public Liability for Freelancers
This kind of cover will offer you protection in the event that your business activity injures or causes damage to someone else. If you are a freelancer who is going into a client’s office, this would involve accidents relating to a piece of machinery or dropping something heavy on a colleague.
When working as a freelancer, you could be working in a variety of surrounding and possibly coming into contact with a lot of people. In the event that a passer-by is hurt, they may wish to sue you for compensation due to incurring medical bills and taking time off from work.
Therefore, by having public liability insurance, your policy can pay for any legal fees and compensation for the person who was injured so you are not made to be financially worse off.
Professional Indemnity for Freelancers
It is very common for freelancers to offer out their expertise or advice. The client may rely upon this to achieve business goals. Despite your best intentions, it may become the case that this advice has adverse effects on the company and causes them to experience fiancé losses as a result. This may be especially pressing for accountants, investments and legal advice.
Since the client will be trusting advice, they may choose to claim compensation from you in the case that something goes wrong as a result of your work. You may also come across clients who are simply unsatisfied with your advice and wish to carry out legal action even though they have no valid claim.
If you have this type of cover in place, you will receive financial protection for any future lawsuits and compensation for loss of income as well as business interruption. Some companies require proof of this kind of insurance prior to working with them so it is worth having for this reason.
Contents and Equipment Cover for Freelancers
As a freelancer, you may have a specialist equipment for carrying out your job, whether it is a computer, a camera, design equipment or the items for your home office. If these were to get damaged then you may not be able to carry out your work as well or at all.
Having this type of insurance can be added on to a more general policy where they can be under one policy. This will enable you to save money and have less admin to do.
Therefore, in the event that your vital pieces of equipment become damaged or broken on the job, the insurance will help you to pay for any necessary repairs or replacements to ensure that you are not out of pocket. You can get back to work in no time too.
Business Interruption for Freelancer
In the event that your work equipment becomes damaged and getting replaced or maybe you have failed ill, making it hard to work and earn income. In order to overcome this, you should apply for business interruption insurance so even if you have to stop for some reason, your insurance will be able to provide you with the compensation.
It is true that your policy will have a number of different terms which fall under the term “business interruption’ and if applicable, you will be able to make a claim.
