Insurance for a carer in my home

ailz95

Hi,

I don't know if I'm in the right place or not, but someone will let me know I would think if I'm not.

My husband and myself are living at my mother-in-law's as she can no longer live alone. To get time off for a week or so every 6-8 weeks we take a carer from an agency. The agency keeps on giving us the run around and we wondered what insurance we would kneed to go it alone. Do we need Employers Liability Insurance? Public Liability Insurance? Or what.

Many thanks

Ailz

Mojisola

ailz95 wrote: »

My husband and myself are living at my mother-in-law's as she can no longer live alone. To get time off for a week or so every 6-8 weeks we take a carer from an agency. The agency keeps on giving us the run around and we wondered what insurance we would kneed to go it alone. Do we need Employers Liability Insurance? Public Liability Insurance? Or what.

Shouldn't that be covered by the agency?

If the agency you're dealing with isn't giving a good service in basic things like answering questions, find a different one.

ailz95

We are looking to take someone on without the backup of an agency. There is someone in the village who would help out and also an agency carer that we would employ without going through the agency (she's a good carer and the agency just keep on messing her/us around), so we would need to insure them, I think, as they would be self-employed/sub contractors (don't know which)

Thanks
Ailz

rs65

ailz95 wrote: »

and we wondered what insurance we would kneed to go it alone. Do we need Employers Liability Insurance? Public Liability Insurance? Or what.

If you are talking about becoming an employer then you'll need EL insurance which may be included in your house insurance, if the carer is regarded as a domestic.

I suspect you would be engaging a carer rather than employing them though.

Rodders53

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/your-responsibilities-when-employing-a-professional-carer may help you with what you will need to cover / consider?

Read your home insurance policy documents (and if necessary ask the insurers) if the policy covers this. (You can find ones that do).

InsideInsurance

Rodders53 wrote: »

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/your-responsibilities-when-employing-a-professional-carer may help you with what you will need to cover / consider?

Northern Ireland has fairly different rules to England & Wales and so the above link may not be the best to use.


From an insurance point of view you will simply need Employers Liability insurance. Most Home cover does provide EL cover for Domestic Staff but you will need to check if their definition of domestic staff includes carers

Obviously one potential issue is if the carer did something wrong that resulted in injury etc to your MIL then it is unlikely that any financial action can be taken against her beyond sacking her unless there was intent. With agency staff you could pursue the agency as the employer for injuries sustained.