Employers’ Liability Insurance
You Could be Fined up to £2,500 a Day
If you’re running a business which employs anyone apart from yourself – even if they’re unpaid – then, in most cases, you are legally required to take out employers’ liability insurance to cover legal fees and compensation costs if an employee or former employee sues your business for illness or injury caused by their work.
Possible claims can happen years after the employment has ended, even if the business is no longer trading. Find out more about employers’ liability insurance in our short guide:
Would I Benefit from Employers’ Liability Insurance?
• Do you run a business with one or more employees? • Do you have employees who are self-employed contractors? • Are any of your employees volunteers, unpaid interns, agency temps or part-time staff?
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you are legally required to take out employers’ liability insurance. You could be fined up to £2,500 per day if you don’t have it. There are only a few exceptional circumstances under which you don’t need employers’ liability insurance: • You are a sole trader • You own run a family business and are related to your employees • You run a public organisation such as a government department
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Benefits of Employers’ Liability Insurance? Employers’ liability insurance can protect your business from compensation costs, legal fees and medical expenses following claims made by employees who have been accidentally injured or become ill as a result of working for you.
Access to ‘no win no fee’ legal services increases the likelihood that an employee will make a claim against you for an illness or injury they say has been caused by work. It’s even possible that someone could make a claim after they have stopped working for you, saying that a work-related illness has only shown up months later.
Can You Give Me an Example? If one of your warehouse employees was accidentally hurt by a forklift truck, then your business could be liable for a compensation claim. Or if a contractor was working for you at a lathe and trips over a cable, they could make a claim against you if the lathe has not been recently checked against health and safety regulations.
What do I Need to Consider When Choosing Employers’ Liability Insurance? • The cost of your premium partly depends on the number of your employees • You should have cover of at least £5 million • Claims made against you could be as high as £10 million
This article has been compiled using information available to us up to 14/09/22. Whilst care has been taken in the production of this document, Aon does not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or fitness for any purpose of the document or any part of it and can accept no liability for any loss incurred in any way by any person who may rely on it. Any recipient shall be responsible for the use to which it puts this document. This document has been compiled using information available to us up to its date of publication and is subject to any qualifications made in this document.