Insurance

[mobwell]

I need to get professional indemnity, employers' liability and public liability insurance to comply with the terms of my new contract. It says I need £1M, £2.5M and £0.5M cover for EACH occurence/claim for the 3 insurances respectively. I've found insurance that covers these levels, but as a TOTAL of all claims of each insurance. Can anyone recommend insurance cover.

Also I know joining the PCG will get me discounted insurance, but are the discounts on offer worth the joining fee?

[boredsenseless]

I need to get professional indemnity, employers' liability and public liability insurance to comply with the terms of my new contract. It says I need £1M, £2.5M and £0.5M cover for EACH occurence/claim for the 3 insurances respectively. I've found insurance that covers these levels, but as a TOTAL of all claims of each insurance. Can anyone recommend insurance cover.

Also I know joining the PCG will get me discounted insurance, but are the discounts on offer worth the joining fee?

Phone an insurance broker, or call the people you've found and ask them what the price will be for what you require.

Alternatively tell your client what you are willing to provide in terms of insurance and see if they accept that

[MrsGoof]

you wont need employers liability of you are the only employee in the co.

[Back In Business]

you wont need employers liability of you are the only employee in the co.

Unless you are outside IR35 and therefore have a substitution clause in your contract.

[neon_trotsky]

Unless you are outside IR35 and therefore have a substitution clause in your contract.

I am the only employee in my company, able to work outside of IR35 - but I'm afraid the reference to the substitution clause is lost on me. Could someone please clarify?

I need to work out what kind of liability insurance I would generally need, going by the list at http://www.contractoruk.com/insurance/index.html?

Any help gratefully received )

[Sockpuppet]

Substitution clause = can send smoeone other than you to do the work for you

[malvolio]

The standard PCG package offer covers (not surprisingly) 99.9% of all contractors' requirements with £100k dedicated PI and £1m shared PI cover, plus adequate ELI and PLI. If you are in something that needs significantly more than that - safety critical software for example - then you ought really to add it to your fees on the basis that if the client requires you to have exceptional levels of cover - basicallyto limit their own product liability - they should go some way towards funding it.

Incidentally, if you don't understand substitution as a concept, how are you so sure you are outside IR35??

[neon_trotsky]

Right - have actually read the contract with an advisor, there is a substitution clause in there, and I fit the criteria for working outside IR35. I'm slightly more in-touch with it now

Speaking to other contractors where I work, none seem to have any additional insurance despite the fact they have their own companies rather than using an umbrella PAYE scheme.

I just want to be sure I have the cover I need, if I need it. Doesn't one have limited liability by having a ltd. company anyway?

[boredsenseless]

Right - have actually read the contract with an advisor, there is a substitution clause in there, and I fit the criteria for working outside IR35. I'm slightly more in-touch with it now

Speaking to other contractors where I work, none seem to have any additional insurance despite the fact they have their own companies rather than using an umbrella PAYE scheme.

I just want to be sure I have the cover I need, if I need it. Doesn't one have limited liability by having a ltd. company anyway?

Yes but its limited to the funds available to the company, this includes (asaik) any dividends declared out of current year profits and any retained profit from the years before.

However if you as a director take on a contract that states you need this cover and you don't taje it out, you have acted at best irresponsibly and at worst committed fraud. In the extreme cases the injured party can sue you directly if it can be proved you acted negligently.