Reply to: Indemnity Insurance

[malvolio]

"I have queried our legal department about this insurance and unfortunately we do not accept this type of insurance."

That's because the PCG one is a form of group cover. Some clients / agencies won't accept group cover.

The "PCG" one (actually the Randell Dorling one) is £100k of personal cover, with access to a shared pot of up to £1m. If your agency needs you to have more than £100k of personal cover (and then you have to ask why, since that's most likely way over the top unless you're building avionics systems or the like), then get it but charge the excess fees to them, since it's their business risk you are covering.

[Ardesco]

But my insurance (not the PCG part) is also group cover, it covers anybody that works for my company....

[BrowneIssue]

Pfft, if you have insurance you have insurance. Does thier contract say you need £XX insureance but you can't get your insurance from the PCG? None of thier bloody business. My company is insured and that is all that matters.

"I have queried our legal department about this insurance and unfortunately we do not accept this type of insurance."

That's because the PCG one is a form of group cover. Some clients / agencies won't accept group cover.

[Ardesco]

Pfft, if you have insurance you have insurance. Does thier contract say you need £XX insureance but you can't get your insurance from the PCG? None of thier bloody business. My company is insured and that is all that matters.

[BrowneIssue]

Something like the PCG deal with Randell Dorling using £100k personal cover and a shared risk for the rest will be sufficient.

But do check with the agent first. Elan, for example, refused to accept the PCG deal for me so I had to get a separate policy.

[malvolio]

OK, this is a newbie question, but I've just picked up my first contract for government, and they state I should have £1m PI, and the agency states I need to produce evidence of Employers and Public Liability.

I had assumed that my contract would be inside IR35, as what I understand is that I am working on-site 5 days a week and if you ignore the fact that I am working for my own limited company, I could probably be considered an employee of the client as the consultancy services I am providing could be provided by one of their own staff, if they could only be bothered to get them trained up.

I know I should get the contract looked at by a lawyer to confirm IR35 status, but if I do get Employer's liability, does that strengthen the case to work outside IR35?

FFS Get your contract checked - if they don't have the skills in house is hardly a reason for you to be caught, is it, since you are clearly supplying something they don't have. Unless you like paying 20% extra tax for no reason, of course.

To answer the question though, if it says you have to have it in the contract and you've signed it, you have to have it and be able to prove it. Something like the PCG deal with Randell Dorling using £100k personal cover and a shared risk for the rest will be sufficient. It has no bearing on IR35 one way or the other.

[Ardesco]

Hmm got to double check but i'm sure my renewal was only £189 with Randall Dorling. I also have PCG Plus membership though so i'm only filling in the gap that the PCG stuff doesn't cover.

[aikidoka]

Legally you don't anymore.

Others argue you should still have some because it shows you are a business and operating outside IR35.

OK, this is a newbie question, but I've just picked up my first contract for government, and they state I should have £1m PI, and the agency states I need to produce evidence of Employers and Public Liability.

I had assumed that my contract would be inside IR35, as what I understand is that I am working on-site 5 days a week and if you ignore the fact that I am working for my own limited company, I could probably be considered an employee of the client as the consultancy services I am providing could be provided by one of their own staff, if they could only be bothered to get them trained up.

I know I should get the contract looked at by a lawyer to confirm IR35 status, but if I do get Employer's liability, does that strengthen the case to work outside IR35?

[swamp]

Fetches the paperwork...

Dallas Kirkland
www.dallaskirkland.com
Tel: 020 7 480 4180

Employers' Liability ... £10m (far too high I reckon)
Public Liability ........ £1m
Products Liability ...... £1m (what's that for?)
Professional Indemnity .. £1m

Annual premium, including tax: £349:15

(And they rounded the months up so it runs for 12 months and a couple of weeks.)

Bugger.

I just paid £475 for £1m PI with QDOS.

Still, it beats ~£540 with Caunce O'Hara

[BrowneIssue]

That's cheap, who do you use?

Fetches the paperwork...

Dallas Kirkland
www.dallaskirkland.com
Tel: 020 7 480 4180

Employers' Liability ... £10m (far too high I reckon)
Public Liability ........ £1m
Products Liability ...... £1m (what's that for?)
Professional Indemnity .. £1m

Annual premium, including tax: £349:15

(And they rounded the months up so it runs for 12 months and a couple of weeks.)

[vhadiant]

My contract requires me to have £1m insurance. The agency won't budge when I tried to get away from it.

[oracleslave]

It's possible they could come after you but not worth worrying about.

Fair enough, consider me a worrier then. I like to cover all eventualities, especially with something potentially financially devastating.

[Denny]

noddyup.

That's one of the things I like about CUK, the slang I learn on it.

[oracleslave]

You could always argue that you never should have had the permissions necessary, and therefore it was all the client's fault.

In your specialist role as a DBA/Developer how on earth does that argument have a snowballs hope in hell of standing up?

[rootsnall]

What happens if you execute a piece of code against the wrong database? Or if you get emailed a virus that takes down their website for X number of hours causing loss of revenue. Or if you are like a DBA I once knew that copied over Prod from the Development environment. Surely these things are possible regardless of your 'level'?

Quite possible but the company should have checks and balances in place to prevent a pleb contractor causing widespread havoc. The manager who let you loose on the Prod system is responsible once the finger pointing starts. The virus shouldn't have got through to you etc etc

In other words they'd be wasting their time pursuing you and doubly so if you don't have any insurance to try and claim against. It's possible they could come after you but not worth worrying about.