Archive for the ‘employers liability insurance’ Category

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Protecting your new employees

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Recent guidance released from the Health and Safety Executive states that new employees are more likely to suffer an injury in the first six months of their employment than the rest of their working career. Of course this is not to say that the time served employee is never going to have an accident. As a business insurance broker, we have learned over the years that accidents can occur at the strangest possible times. Employees that have worked for companies for many years, never taken days off sick and are very, very careful can simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For new employees, unfamiliar with working practices and trying to learn new things and working methods every day, the likelihood of an accident is vastly increased. The HSE have a role to try and prevent work place accidents, their website has a huge amount of relevant information for you to peruse and help you. It may seem daunting at first, but even basic steps are worth taking. There are of course things that you as an employer will do day in and day out without even thinking about. Your new employee though may need to be shown many many times before they get it right.

In addition to being patient and taking tome to tech, re-teach and teach again, you need to have employers liability insurance in case there is an accident. In 1969 legislation was passed, which has been revised many times since, which states that you must have adequate insurance in force in case an employee has an accident, suffers and illness or catches a disease for which you could be held liable. Employers liability insurance is one of the strictest covers out there. What this means, for the commercial insurance companies, is that you cannot have many exclusions, warranties, restrictions, excesses or conditions.

If you need the cover, you need to speak to an independent business insurance broker to get them to look around on your behalf to get you the best type of cover at the most competitive price.

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Taking on employees and getting employers liability insurance

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Given that 2011 did not really deliver any real growth changes compared to 2010, most UK businesses are looking froward to 2012 with a bit of trepidation. Whilst it is difficult to read the signs in advance, it really does not look like we are going to get a huge amount of growth for the whole of next year. There are doom mongers out there who have been predicting, some would say wishing for, a double dip recession. Of course we have come close to this, but so far not yet.

This is not to say that everything out there is doom and gloom though, there are some positives and UK plc continues to prove it is as resilient as ever. Many businesses are continuing to fight through the pain and are showing some signs of high singles and lose double digit percentage growth. But, with the growth, comes the responsibility. If you have been operating as a sole trader, you may find that the only way that you can deal with the growth is to employ someone. Going from working on your own to employing even just one person is a huge, huge step from any business. There are legal responsibilities out there, for which you can find ample advice and help on through some of the UK governments websites.

One of the things you will need to get, is employers liability insurance. It is not a nice to have, but is something that the law of the land states you must have in force or ou could face a fine. The current figure is up to £2,500 per day that you do not have valid cover. In reality, you are given the opportunity to prove this cover in the event of a Health and Safety visit. But, if you want to get the cover in place, before you are forced to do so, then you have an army at your disposal.

That army are the thousands of independent business insurance brokers, ready to provide you with a competitively priced quote and policy. If you need the cover, give us a call.

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Employers liability insurance – checking it is in force.

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Employers liability insurance is one of our most regular topics we write about. It is one of the few covers that, in the UK, there is a legal requirement to have. The difficulty is that there is no real, robust, definitive process for checking whether this cover is in force.

It would be a lot easier if, for example, all businesses traded as limited companies and some form of central register could be created. There is a database in existence for motor insurance, whereby the insurers have a requirement to notify the motor insurance database of any insurance cover in place for vehicles. Any amendments, alterations or changes need to be updated very quickly. This way the various Police forces can tap into this central database and check whether a vehicle has adequate cover. This is also tied in with the ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras. If a car, which the database says does not have insurance, drives past a Police car with one of these cameras, the it is immediately flagged up.

However, you may have noticed that we say, “if the database says”. This is where there are some problems with the information not being updated. As a business insurance broker, we do get involved in three way conversations where the Police have stopped one of our policyholders as the insurers have not notified the motor insurance database of a change of vehicle. We always get there in the end, but it can take a good few hours out of your day unnecessarily.

Employers liability insurance is no as easy, because the more astute of you will realise that businesses do not simply trade as limited companies only. In addition, you can have plc’s, charities, sole traders with employees, partnerships with employees, not for profit companies, limited liability partnerships and literally dozens of others. The Health and Safety Executive do their bit when they undertake physical, on site, inspections of businesses. In reality though, these visits are decreasing and there are a whole host of other things that are potentially more important to check.

A proper, robust, usable database is many years away. In the meantime, if you have employees, just make sure that your business insurance quote includes cover in the event of injury, illness or disease to them.

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Employers Liability Tracing Office – what do you need to do?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

As a business insurance broker, earlier on in 2011, we found out about the new steps that the insurers were taking to allow ex-employees, or current employees, to find out who were the employers liability insurance company for businesses in the past.

This new scheme is ELTO, the employers liability tracing office, is designed for just this purpose. The problem we found was that insurers were not following a co-ordinated response. If we look back to when insurance premium tax was first introduced in October 1994, we knew at least 6-9 months before what most insurers were going to do. Then from the 1st October we had to simply adapt and operate under the new regime. To give an example of how dis-organised some insurers were, one of our main insurers came into see us in May and I asked them about ELTO. Their first response was, what does that stand for? They did not have a clue and to be honest, as we hit the end of September, they still don’t.

So what is required from your business and more importantly when? You will, for every existing policy and new business insurance quote, from 1st April 2012 have to provide the Employers Reference Number, for your insurers to provide cover. If your insurer is not signed up to the ELTO, then it will not matter. But, we are not expecting any insurers that are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, in the UK to not be signatories to the ELTO by the time next April comes around.

You cannot not provide this information. It is not wanted for anything other than to help employees who suffer an illness, accident or injury, either whilst employed or way into the future trace who was the insurer at the time. If you look at the miners or people that worked with asbestos in the 60’s and 70’s only realised 20 or 30 years later that they had some serious, life threatening, illnesses.

Your broker or insurer should explain why they need this information, it is for a legitimate reason.

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Employers Laibility Insurance – Contributory Negligence

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Employers liability insurance is one of the few legally required covers in the UK. It is also very heavily regulated, in that insurers are not able to put in onerous exclusions, warranties or restrictions.

At it’s most basic level, if you have an employee and they are injured and you have been proven negligent, you will, as an employer, be liable. If your employee, or ex employee, appoints a solicitor you can expect a claim to be in excess of £10,000 even for the most basic of injuries. We have one claim on the go, where an employee fell of the third rung of a ladder, which is sitting at £107,000 estimate. The employee borrowed the ladder from a customer which was strictly against their training, but the claim still stands.

We have another where an employee, to try and get their work completed quickly, stuck tape over the safety switch for a machine that cut paper and lost 3 fingers. Without the employee doing this, the injury would not have occurred. That one is just over £750,000.

With these two claims, the employee contributed to the claim. You would think that this would result in either the claim being turned down or reduced significantly. But, we said it is subject to strict regulation and the claims simply proceed. The insurers estimate that the claims may be reduced by between 3 and 5% because of the employee contributing 100% to the injury.

If you are trading without business insurance cover, you really do need to get something sorted out, soon. Whilst you never would expect to have a claim, you would be surprised at what it can do to your businesses survival prospects if you have decent insurance behind you.

If you need a quote, speak to an independent business or commercial insurance broker and at least be aware of the costs that you would expect to pay.

Posted in business insurance, commercial insurance, employers liability insurance | Comments Off

Should I use a commercial insurance broker

Monday, August 8th, 2011

As we are a commercial insurance broker, our answer is of course a resounding yes. In the interests of fairness and honesty though, we have to put down our reasons why.

In the UK, you have a number of avenues to follow when getting yourself a quote, and ultimately a policy, for your business.

Firstly, you have to understand whether you have a requirement (legally) to have cover in place. Usually in the UK, the only legal requirement you may have, apart from motor, is employers liability insurance, where you employ anyone, whether they receive a salary or not.

Any cover additional to this is usually just what a sensible and prudent business person would take out.

Once you have decided what cover you need, you can then either use a broker, maybe go to your bank, go direct to an insurer, use an appointed representative or go on the internet and use a comparison website.

If you bank with one of the larger firms, they will usually have a business insurance division. Many of these are brokers in their own right. But, they may have a deal with one insurer to use them for a particular type of policy. For example shop insurance will go to insurer A whereas commercial property owners insurance would go to insurer B. If this is the case, you are not really getting a choice. How do you know they are offering a market beating deal? The plus points are that you may get discounts on overdraft rates if you choose their insurance. But, you have to consider the whole picture. You may be over-paying on your business insurance to save 0.25% on your overdraft. over 12 months this may not make financial sense, but you have to work this out.

Going direct to an insurer simply means that you do not get choice, again. They only sell their own products, so you only get the choice of one policy.

An appointed representative, or AR, is a form of broker that does not have full authorisation and registration. Usually because they can only sell a restricted range of products. Again, you are not getting full choice.

Using one of the websites that offers to compare business insurance will give you more choice, depending on your trade. If you fit into one of their categories you may get a list of prices at the end of the quote process. These companies sell on price, this is why the premiums are usually in flashing letters, enticing you to buy. Whilst you get the choice, how do you know whether the £500 quote is offering similar cover to the £750 quote? You may buy the cheaper one but then find out you have a big excess, onerouse terms or worse still gaps in cover. You only find this out when you need it most, after a loss.

As these sites do not advise you, you cannot go back and say that they sold you the wrong policy, because you chose policy Y over policy Z.

All of this leads neatly to using an independent broker. We have access to a number of insurers, we must offer you the best quote at the best price, our service is free and best of all you have comeback if you were mis-sold a policy.

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Employers liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Many of us in the business insurance industry, who have at some point in our careers studied for exams, will give a small shudder when we see the above phrase.

This, as well as the Road Traffic Act, is one of the pieces of legislation that we had to learn, not quite inside out, but it seemed that to be as near as damn it. It is one of the cornerstones of our industry and, as well as third party motor insurance, the main type of cover that you must have, by law.

But who actually needs to have employers liability insurance and what happens if you do not have it in place?

We talk about the 1969 act, but there were numerous acts before and many revisions afterwards, but this was the one that made it compulsory. An employee, as far as a commercial insurance policy is concerned, is one of the widest definitions you will get. An employee does not have to be on the payroll, they do not have to have a contract of employment and they do not have to have worked with you for any length of time. I could ask my next door neighbour to give me a hand moving a desk and potentially, if they were injured, I could be faced with an employers liability claim. Why? Because they were working under my direction and control. Even though they were volunteering they will still fall under the definition of an employee. If you have a school child doing work experience, they are automatically covered.

But what happens if you do not have the required cover ( a minimum limit of indemnity of £5,000,000 in respect of each and every claim or event)? You can, although we have never heard of it actually happening, be fined £2,500 per day that you do not have cover. This is obviously designed to be a last resort and nothing else. If Health and Safety pay you a visit and you do not have the cover, they will tend to give yo a few days grace to get some cover in place.

If you are stuck as to whether you need this cover or not, speak to a friendly business insurance broker and we will help yo decide if you fall under the requirements of the act or not.

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Taking on employees? If so, make sure you have employers liability insurance.

Friday, January 14th, 2011

As a business insurance broker, we have seen some huge peaks in new business set-ups (2006 and 2007) all the way to the huge troughs of 2009 and 2010. Whilst we are not the ultimate economic barometer, we can see quite clearly that UK plc has been through quite a sickly period of time.

But, whilst we are not bold enough to say that the green shoots of recovery are out there (we cannot see because of the snow), we do know that the last two years has seen a lot of sorting of the wheat from the chaff. We may have mourned the loss of some large retailers, but if their business model was flawed, because they had to keep borrowing and borrowing, then eventually things where going to come to a head. This has helped some smaller retailers as some of the bigger high street names, who were discounting beyond belief, have gone.

We are not starting to see some businesses, after going through a sort of hibernation phase, starting to grow. This may mean that the sole trader who had to lay off their employees, are now starting to take on staff.

If you went from a trader with employees, to trading on your own, you would probably have removed the employers liability insurance. If you do not employ anyone then you do not need and should not pay for it.

Just be aware though, that as soon as you take on anyone, even if for a short while, if they are deemed to be an employee, then you have a legal requirement to have adequate cover in place.

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Trading without business insurance – a risk not worth taking.

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Throughout all the years we have been involved in the industry, there will always be companies that decide it is ok to continue trading without business insurance. Whether times are good or bad, some people disagree that it is a risk not worth taking. Given the past few years and the terrible economic plight we have been through, there are more and more business owners, deciding that the will trade without cover.

Of course, there is a cost element to buying insurance, but you do have to sit down and decide whether it is a risk you are prepared, or financially capable, of shouldering.

There are two sides to the coin. On the one side, you have the legally required cover, such as employers liability insurance. Trade without it and you will face the potential of a huge claim if an employee is injured. Coupled with this, you could also face the prospect of a £2,500 fine per day, that you trade without cover. Just under £1,000,000 per year, not thanks.

On the other side, you have the covers which are not legally required, but ones that the sensible and prudent business person will take out. Look around the country today and you will see that there are numerous buildings that are suffering burst pipes after the recent cold snap. Dripping water is a serious danger to business equipment, contents, stock and computers. You would be amazed at just how much damage can be done over a few days (the weekend) from a constantly leaking pipe.

If you do not have cover, the best thing you can do is to speak to a broker and get them to organise or provide you with a business insurance quote. At least that way you can decide whether the cover is worth having or not. You may be surprised at the premiums that are quoted. Combine these with the option of monthly instalments and it may be worth taking the cover out.

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Contractors insurance – getting the best quote.

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Whilst there are many different economic barometers and measures, in the world of business insurance we have two main one. Firstly, the number of business that cease to trade and secondly the number of new businesses, or business start ups, that we see who are looking for a quote.

After two years of increased business failures (and ceasing to pay insurance) and a reduction of new business enquiries, in the latter half of 2010 we are starting to see a vast improvement. We are not naive enough to say that business is not still extremely tough, just that we think a curve, not a corner, has been turned.

Construction has obviously been hit very badly, perhaps the worst of all. With the large reduction in house and commercial building, many businesses simply ceased to operate. We are now seeing more new enquiries from the construction sector than we have done for many years.

If you are just looking to take out a new contractors all risks insurance policy, where do you go? Our advice, over the years has not wavered at all. You will always get a better overall combination of service and price from a broker.

There are more commercial insurance companies nowadays offering policies for builders and tradesmens but do not be tempted to go direct. They cannot give you the choice that you need, whether it is public liability only or a full policy including employers liability and contract works, then you need a professional to advise you on the best, and most competitive type of policy to take out.

Posted in construction insurance, contract works insurance, contractors all risks insurance, employers liability insurance, public liability insurance | No Comments »

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