Personal insurance when you’re self-employed

When you become self-employed, you’ll need to think about what will happen if you can’t work because of illness or injury.

Because you’re working for yourself you won’t get sick pay, although you might qualify for state benefits.

Long-term income protection insurance protects you if your earnings drop because of sickness and injury. Depending on the terms and conditions, your payouts will continue until you’re able to return to work or the policy ends.

Short-term policies are sometimes known as accident, sickness and unemployment products. These usually only pay out for one or two years. They can include payment protection and mortgage payment protection insurance, and are designed to cover any outstanding debts you have.

This is a long-term insurance policy. It usually pays out a tax-free lump sum if you’re diagnosed with one of the serious illnesses covered by your policy.

These usually include some cancers, heart attack and stroke.

It’s designed to pay off debts, or a mortgage, or pay for any alterations needed to your home – for example, so you can use a wheelchair.

Only selected conditions are covered by these policies. Common illnesses that keep people off work, such as back problems and stress, aren’t covered.

Critical illness insurance doesn’t usually pay out if you die. So it might not provide suitable cover for any dependants.

This insurance will usually pay your dependants a lump sum, but can give regular payments, if you die.

You might have had life insurance as part of your package if you were employed – this is often known as death-in-service benefit.

This will have ended when your employment stopped.

Life insurance is worth thinking about if you have children or other dependents you look after or who depend on you financially.

You can’t rely on the government to take care of your family – the money they would get from the state is much lower than most people expect.

This insurance can supplement what’s available on the NHS.

Some self-employed people choose to take out medical insurance because they want to guard against being off work and losing earnings if waiting for NHS treatment.

Your employer might have offered this health insurance as an employee benefit. But when you become self-employed, you no longer qualify for it.

If you can afford the premiums, it might be worth considering as it gives you a choice in the level of care you get and how and when it is provided.

Were you employed before and benefited from insurance, for example, life insurance or private medical insurance? Then you might be able to continue with the same providers.

Check with the provider how much it would cost to continue with the cover.

It’s likely to be more expensive for an individual policy than it was when you were employed.

It’s also a good benchmark to allow you to compare prices and policies when shopping around.

If you run your business from your home, it’s important not to assume your personal household insurance will cover you.

Typically, home and contents insurance policies, or your business insurance, will cover business equipment in your home.

But there’s a difference between being covered if you occasionally work from home, and running a business from home.

If you work from home, make sure your insurer understands this and check the terms and conditions to see if you might need any extra cover.

This is because if you’re running a business or working from home, your insurer might change the way it assesses your cover.

If you’re setting up your business from home, the best thing to do first is to talk to your current insurer and explain your plans.

They might ask for an additional premium on your current insurance.

If you don’t tell your insurers and you need to make a claim, you might find that your insurance is invalid and the claim won’t be paid.