What is Self-Employed Insurance?

What is Self-Employed Insurance?

Whilst the idea of becoming self-employed is for many people, an exciting prospect, offering up the opportunity to become your own boss, and most likely a lot more freedom and flexibility than is offered in a typical 9-5 office job, there are certain things you will need to take care of if you are working for yourself. One of the most important responsibilities that you will face as someone who is self-employed, is sorting out insurance.
If you are one of the growing number of people in the UK that is working from home (this currently stands at 4.2 million self-employed in the UK, according to the Office For National Statistics, but has been increasingly steadily each year for the last decade, and the growth rate is posed to continue to rise, says the TUC), then you will need to thoroughly consider the type of insurance you need to have in place.

Self-employed health insurance

Possibly one of the only downsides of being self-employed is the lack of financial protection in place in the event that you are unable to work (as a result of illness, business interruption or due to facing legal action). For example, if you were working for a business, it is a legal obligation for your employer to have employers liability insurance, which means that in the event that you are injured whilst at work or you fall ill you will be covered by this policy. If you are self-employed, there is no such policy – unless you take out self-employed health insurance. Getting such cover has a number of advantages such as that you may be able to receive savings on a health plan (based on your profession, income, as well as your household size). In addition, you may also be entitled to a premium tax credit.

Self-employed income protection insurance

self-employed-insurance
Time is money, but if you are self-employed and become too ill to work you could lose a significant amount of income if you do not have self-employed income protection insurance in place.

Having self-employed income protection insurance is thoroughly recommended if you work from home. It means that should you find yourself in the future unable to work due to being injured or as a result of illness, you will have some form of financial protection in place through a policy cover.
The financial protection you will receive through income protection insurance is intended to be used for a number of different expenses in the event you cannot work, for example to pay towards a mortgage, household bills, paying staff, and so forth. However, it is important to note that the policy cover will not necessarily replace your full income: most self-employed protection insurance covers will pay out up to 60% of your gross salary. The cover can continue until the end of the policy, or until retirement dependent upon your personal preference.

Critical Illness Cover

Working in similarity to self-employed income protection insurance, this kind of cover will ensure that you will receive a significant tax-free lump sum if you become seriously ill and can no longer work. It covers many serious illnesses or injuries, such as losing an arm or leg, cancer, strokes and heart attacks. This kind of cover also works as a replacement salary and can be used to pay a multitude of living expenses.

Life insurance

It is worth considering getting lie insurance if you are self-employed. It means that if you die your dependants will be provided with a regular stream of income in your absence, meaning that they are taken care of should you unexpectedly pass away.

Self-employed public liability insurance

It isn’t a compulsory form of insurance for those who are self-employed, but it is nevertheless worth getting  if your line of work means that if there is any potential way that clients or customers could be affected by your work, or if you have visitors coming to your property for business purposes.
Having this kind of over means that you will not have to cover the costs out of your own pocket if someone were to sue you. Just because you are self-employed doesn’t mean you are exempt from facing legal action. This is because you are still liable for potential damages should an individual that has visited your home in relation to work is injured as a result of going to your home.
This is why those in certain professions, such as tutors or therapists who run their business from their home where a client could become injured, or those who are plumbers or handymen, whose line of work means that that is is reasonably possible for a member of the public to end up getting an injury.  If you have public liability insurance policy it means that it can help to cover the costs of various legal fees due to someone suing you for damages, as well as any other additional costs that need to be paid as a result of defending claims. 
Whilst dependent upon the exact insurance provider, it is also possible for public liability insurance to also cover you  if you regularly visit other people on business and in the scenario where you accidentally damage someone’s property.

Professional indemnity insurance

By taking out professional indemnity insurance as someone who is self-employed, it means that the insurance provider will cover the cost of legal fees as well as compensation bills that need to be paid due to a customer wanting to pursue legal action due to being negligient, or as a result of professional advice that you have given leading to financial loss for the customer.

How can I find the right self-employed insurance cover?

Finding the right self-employed insurance cover is no easy-feat when there are so many options available on the market. However, we are here to help.  We work with a number of the insurance providers who are specialists when it comes to self-employed insurance, meaning that we can help you find the very best policies as well as the best deals out there.