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 Do I need employers liability insurance? Yes. Generally speaking, it is a legal requirement on all businesses to have employers liability insurance cover.
The legal minimum is currently (2007) £5 million of cover against claims for damage or injury made by employees for bodily injury, illness or disease sustained during the course of employment. The Employers' Liability Act (Compulsory Insurance) Act of 1969 made it a legal requirement to have Employers Liability insurance from 1972. All employers must also display their Certificate of Employers Liability Insurance wherever employed persons are covered by the policy. Do I need Employers Liability Insurance if I work from home?Yes. If you are self employed or employed by your own company and have one or more employees then you will need employer's liability cover, and you must display a certificate to this effect on the premises. Limited companies with just one employee - where that employee also owns 50 per cent or more of the issued share capital in the company - are exempt from Employers' Liability Insurance cover. If you have customers, clients, or partners who visit your home to conduct business then you should take out a combined Employers' and Public Liability Insurance policy cover. If your business isn't a limited company, and you're the only employee - or you only employ close family members - you don't require Employers' Liability Insurance cover. You do need it if you deduct National Insurance contributions and income tax from the salary you pay to someone who works for you, and you control when, where and how they work for you. Do I need employers liability insurance if my staff work abroad or my company is based outside the UK?If employees are normally based in the UK (including offshore) you do need employers' liability insurance cover. You don't need employers liability insurance under British law to cover personnel based outside the UK or staff on secondment. But check whether the law in the country where they are based requires you to take out insurance or take other steps to protect your staff. If employees are based abroad but spend more than 2 weeks continuously in the UK, or more than 7 days offshore, you do need employers' liability insurance. Company ProtectionAside from the legal requirement for ELI, having cover makes good business sense. Employers' Liability Insurance provides a business with financial backing up to a specified amount to meet the legal costs of defending a claim made against the business by an employee, and the costs of compensation awarded to the employee. Your business is protected against some of the risks resulting from employing people. This is especially useful and reassuring as more and more workers seek redress in the courts and visit solicitors and other sources of legal information such as online websites for basic advice about their legal rights. Record claims and expensive legal defense have resulted in a general rise in the cost of employers liability cover and in some very high risk industries, cover has become prohibitively expensive, if not impossible to obtain. Examples of TradesIf you have staff they you will generally require employers liability insurance for:
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