Protection Insurance For Contractors

As well as mortgages, protecting contractors and their livelihood from every eventuality is a key part of our service!

There's no question that contracting is a great way to earn extra money for doing the same job as permanently-employed staff. However, there's a very good reason for those higher earnings.

Being directly employed may pay less, but there are advantages "permies" have over their self-employed counterparts. Protection whilst they're off ill or death-in-service are just two that instantly spring to mind.If you're unfit for work, there is no sick pay. If you should contract a serious illness or worse, how would your dependents cope financially? Who'd keep the roof over their head if there was mortgage debt outstanding?

No one likes admitting they're mortal. But the fact is, we are. Each and every one of us. So unless you're Superman, we've put together four essential insurances that no contractor should be without.

Income Protection

PHI is there for those times you're unable to make it to work following an accident or illness that mean long periods of incapacitation and recuperation.

Accidents happen. Every day. Those in permanent employment don't usually have to worry about them as much as contractors. Their employer covers them for three months, usually on full pay, whilst they convalesce.

Our income protection is there for self-employed contractors who have no such benevolent boss. It's a bespoke service that caters to your circumstances directly, so no one-size fits all.

Depending upon your financial or contracting situation, you may be prepared to wait a little longer for the payments to kick in or need them sooner. There are benefits to each, all explained and more on our devoted Income Protection page.

Contractor Life Cover

No one wants to think about life insurance. Nevertheless, if you have a mortgage, your lender will insist you have it in place. Your family will also benefit greatly because of you taking out a policy that's designed especially for the contractor lifestyle.

Death-in-service benefits cover permanent employees. It's often a part of their overall contract and can usually be found tied in with their pension scheme. For contractors who use their pension allowance against their tax liability, this is not ideal.

We have a range of options, depending upon how you'd like to take out your policy. If you want term assurance, which covers you for a definitive period, we can help. Or, if you'd rather go for a whole life policy, we can arrange that, too.

For more insight into the way you can take advantage of both the tax breaks available for running life insurance through your business and leaving your family comfortable in the event that the worst happens, please continue to our Contractor Life Insurance page.

Critical Illness Cover for Contractors

Advances in medicine are progressing massively. Yet there are still many illnesses whose symptoms are lifelong once suffered. They can make work after the event impossible, let alone improbable.

Loss of sight, stroke, heart disease and cancer are just a handful of diseases and conditions that make us more than twice as susceptible to serious illness than death before we reach retirement age.

The critical illness cover we provide pays out a lump sum on diagnosis of one of these terrible illnesses. Conditions such as blindness or the after-effects of stroke need not be fatal, but they can have a huge impact on our ability to work, thus our financial status.

Find out more about how you can protect yourself and your livelihood on our Critical Illness page.

Freelance Contractor Insurance

Whilst the above insurances all deal with the mortality of being human, freelancers also have to understand that, when going into business for themselves, they become liable for a multitude of sins, too.

It's no less important to protect your business than to protect your livelihood in the event that you can't work. If you think about it, your business is your livelihood, so why would you want to knowingly expose yourself to risk?

All businesses must have their professional insurances in place, such as Employers’ Liability, Public Liability and Professional Indemnity. These protect you from claims anyone can make against you as a result of carrying out your service.

However, as a freelancer or contractor, there's an extra element you need to be aware of. That element is HMRC and its accompanying IR35 dictum.

It's no secret. Most self-employed people have chosen that route because tax planning through a limited company enables them to retain much more of their income. Their entire livelihood then, including their mortgage, relies on the fact that they remain compliant.

HMRC has developed IR35 from its original concept to now target any contractor whom it believes is straying beyond compliance guidelines. Cases can drag on for years rather than months, during which time the contractor under investigation has to pay tax through the PAYE system.

Any financial reasoning upon which that contractor has based their affordability can lay in tatters. Moreover, there's the huge tax bill that may become payable at the end of the investigation to consider, if HMRC wins their case.

To help protect you, your family and your business against these eventualities, find out more on our Freelance Contractor Insurance page.