If you’re self-employed, it’s a good idea to get insurance. You don’t get some of the benefits that many employees take for granted, such as statutory sick pay. Plus, if anything ever goes wrong in your line of work, you may be personally liable for any claims made against you.

Insurance acts as an essential safety net for self-employed workers. It can cover you for almost any unexpected event, whether it’s a sudden illness or injury, an unpaid invoice, or even legal defence.

In this post we’ll explore many different insurance products for self-employed workers, to help you decide on what sort of cover you need for your work.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

This is the big one – the type of insurance that no self-employed worker should be without. Professional indemnity insurance essentially covers you for any mistakes you make in your work. If a client believes that they’ve made a loss having used your services, they make a claim against you.

In this case, professional indemnity insurance will cover the cost of your legal defence, as well as any compensation your client may be due.

You can read our full guide to professional indemnity insurance.

We also have a number of additional guides to further explain why all self-employed workers should consider professional indemnity insurance:

• Who needs professional indemnity insurance?
• 5 key reasons to consider professional indemnity insurance
• How much is professional indemnity insurance?
• Why professional indemnity insurance is an essential part of the freelancer’s armoury

Public Liability Insurance

If members of the public routinely visit your business premises, public liability insurance will cover you should anyone ever injure themselves or damage their possessions while on your property.

But even if you don’t have business premises, you should still consider public liability insurance. It can also cover you if you cause any damage while spending time on someone else’s property. Self-employed contractors do most of their work on other people’s property. If you accidentally break a window while fixing a gutter, or if you spill paint on the carpet while decorating a room, public liability insurance can cover the damage.

Like professional indemnity insurance, public liability insurance can cover your legal fees along with any compensation your client may be due.

Read our full guide to public liability insurance.

Plus, we have these additional guides to public liability insurance:

• Who needs public liability insurance?
• What’s the difference between professional indemnity insurance and public liability insurance?
• Why it makes sense to include public liability insurance as part of your business insurance
• Why public liability insurance is a must for small businesses

Employer’s Liability Insurance

If you employ any staff, then you have a legal obligation to get employer’s liability insurance. Even if you just employ one person for an hour or two a week, then you’ll still need employer’s liability cover.

This will cover any potential compensation costs and legal fees if an employee or ex-employee makes a claim against you for any injuries they sustained while working for you.

Read our full guide to employer’s liability insurance.

Again, we have a few additional guides to employer’s liability insurance:

• Who does employer’s liability insurance cover, and what does it cover?
• Why it is not an option to go without employer’s liability insurance
• Without employer’s liability insurance, you could go bust
• Taking on employees? Here’s what you need to know

Cyber Breach Response Insurance

Everyone works with tech these days. Even if you don’t work in IT, you’ll still use a smartphone and a laptop to find work and keep in touch with clients and suppliers. So your self-employed business is online – even if you don’t necessarily think of it as such.

Cyber breach response protects your business online. If your system gets hacked, or if you suffer a data breach, cyber insurance can cover the costs of getting everything back up and running.

Read our complete guide to cyber breach response insurance.

If you’d like to know more:

• Does your small business need cyber breach insurance?
• How to avoid falling victim to cybercrime
• Why cyber breach insurance could save your reputation
• The worst advice we’ve ever heard about cyber insurance

Contents Insurance

If cyber response insurance protects your business online, contents insurance can protect your business offline. As a self-employed worker, your equipment is your livelihood. Whether it’s the specialist tools of the trade you use to do your work, or the tech you use to contact clients and suppliers, if anything were to happen to your equipment you simply wouldn’t be able to work.

If any of your equipment is lost, damaged or stolen, contents insurance can cover you for repairs and replacements. So you’ll be able to continue trading, no matter what.

Read our complete guide to contents insurance.

Buildings Insurance and Business Interruption Cover

If you operate out of business premises, then buildings insurance can cover you for damages caused by fires, floods, and theft.

Read our complete guide to buildings insurance.

If you need to close or relocate following an incident at your premises, business interruption insurance can cover you during your downtime. It can also cover you for additional interruptions to your business, including disruption to your supply chains, public authority incidents, and even continuing hire charges. Head here to learn more about business interruption insurance.

Don’t have business premises? You may still have to think about insurance if you run your business from home, as your standard home insurance may not cover your property for business use. Head here to learn more about insurance when running a business from home.

Personal Accident Cover and Health Insurance

If you work for an employer, you can depend on getting statutory sick pay if a personal accident ever puts you out of action. But self-employed workers don’t have things so easy. And if you can’t work, you can’t earn.

But personal accident insurance can cover you for most accidents and injuries. So you’ll be able to rest assured that everything will be taken care of while you focus on your recovery.

Read our complete guide to personal accident cover.

If you’re self-employed, you might also consider getting health insurance. This will give you 24/7 access to the healthcare you need, when you need it.

Many self-employed people seem to view health insurance as an expensive luxury. But it can be more affordable than you might think. Head here to learn more about health insurance for small businesses.

Legal Expenses Cover

You can choose legal expense cover as an optional extra to your professional indemnity insurance policy. This will protect you from various legal issues that may not be covered by standard professional indemnity.

Read a complete list of what is and isn’t covered by legal expense insurance.

But the main reason why all self-employed workers should consider getting legal expenses insurance is that it can cover you for HMRC investigations.

IR35 is a set of tax rules that concerns self-employed contractors. Read our full guide to what IR35 is, and who it affects.

If HMRC suspects you’ve broken IR35 rules, they may choose to investigate you. And HMRC investigations can be very, very costly. It’s at such times that legal expense cover can be a lifesaver.

You can read our complete guide to HMRC investigations, and how legal expense insurance can cover you.

Medical Malpractice and Treatment Risk Insurance

All of the insurance products we’ve looked at so far are suitable for almost any self-employed worker. But some types of cover are only necessary for certain professions and certain fields.

Medical malpractice insurance is vital if you provide any medical care or ancillary services to patients – particularly if these services carry a risk of illness, injury or death.

Read our complete guide to medical malpractice insurance. Our guide explains what it covers, what it doesn’t cover, and who might need it.

Certain services still carry inherent risks, but they’re not necessarily medical services. These include health, beauty, and wellbeing treatments. If you do this sort of work, then you should consider treatment liability insurance.

If you’d like to know more about medical malpractice and treatment liability insurance, you’ll find many additional guides on our site:

• What’s the difference between medical malpractice and treatment risk insurance?
• What’s the difference between medical malpractice insurance and professional indemnity insurance?
• A guide to common medical malpractice claims
• How much does medical malpractice insurance cost?

We also have a few guides for specific professions and industries:

• What sort of insurance do vets need?
• What sort of insurance do fitness professionals need?
• What sort of insurance do child carers and nannies need?
• What sort of insurance do counsellors and therapists need?

Get Comprehensive Self-Employed Cover For Less

At Tapoly, we specialise in giving all types of self-employed tailored insurance cover at an affordable price. You won’t pay for any cover you don’t need, and there are no hidden fees. Get in touch for a free quote in minutes.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your options please contact our Tapoly team at info@tapoly.com, call our helpline on +44(0)2078 460 108 or try our chat on our website.