What insurance does a home carer need?

1. 1

   Always, if you drive to visits

   Business use car insurance

   Covers driving to and between clients rather than only social, domestic or commuting trips. Needed whether you drive your own car or a client’s.

   Who arranges it: You, with your own insurer or as a named driver

2. 2

   Only if you charge or claim mileage for a trip

   Hire and reward cover

   Covers carrying a client as a passenger on a journey you are paid for. Business use alone does not include this.

   Who arranges it: You, confirmed in writing with the insurer

3. 3

   Not compulsory, strongly worth having

   Public liability insurance

   Covers a claim if a client or their property is harmed by something you did while working, such as a fall you caused or an accident with an appliance.

   Who arranges it: PrimeCarers, per visit booked through the platform, if you do not already have your own

4. 4

   Not compulsory, protects you rather than the client

   Personal accident insurance

   Pays out if you are injured while working and cannot earn, since a self-employed carer has no sick pay to fall back on. Public liability protects the client, not you.

   Who arranges it: You, through a specialist broker

None of this is checked before you appear in a search. PrimeCarers checks your identity, your right to work and checks you hold an accepted criminal-record check (Enhanced DBS issued within the last 18 months, DBS Update Service, Scottish PVG or Access NI), and every carer has an online interview, and become a carer covers those checks in full. Insurance sits alongside them rather than inside them, which is why it is worth sorting before your first booking rather than after it.

So "do I need insurance?" has no single answer. Working alone, one client at a time, keeps you outside employer's liability and outside the registration rules built for agencies, which do self-employed carers need to be registered with CQC? covers. Driving is where cover stops being optional in practice, and the next two sections deal with it. Public liability is a choice, but a self-employed carer has no employer behind a genuine accident, which is the reason to weigh it seriously.

If you drive your own car, ring your insurer and ask for business use, and say plainly that the driving is paid care work rather than a commute, since a vague description gets a vague answer. If you are asked to drive a client's car instead, the policy and the named drivers on it belong to them, not you, and can a live-in carer take a client out in a car? sets out what changes when that is the arrangement, including what a client needs to add to their own policy before you get behind the wheel. Carer car insurance: what you need to know covers the same four classes from a family's side of the arrangement, which is worth knowing if a client asks you what to check for.

PrimeCarers arranges public liability cover for each visit booked through the platform, if you do not already have your own, under the policy set out on our insurance page; become a carer sets out what else changes if you register through a platform instead of going fully independent. That cover does not extend to your own injury or to the car you drive there in, which is why the two covers above sit alongside it rather than replace it. Some specialist carer policies also add professional indemnity, covering a claim that something you did or advised caused a client financial loss, though this matters less for a carer who is not offering medical or financial advice as part of the job. Brokers such as Simply Business quote carer-specific policies alongside other self-employed cover, and the only reliable premium is the one your own circumstances are quoted, not a figure quoted for somebody else's policy.

Public liability answers one kind of question: did something you did while working hurt a client or damage their property. It says nothing about your own injury, your car, or a disagreement over what was agreed, which is why the other covers on this page sit alongside it.

A claim can be refused if either condition was not met when the accident happened. Training for private carers covers what is worth doing early, and the Health and Safety Executive's guidance on moving and handling equipment sets the standard for lifting equipment, insurance aside.

Neither route is wrong. Going fully independent, or taking on clients outside the platform as well, means arranging every cover on the right yourself. Working through PrimeCarers narrows that list to business use insurance for your own driving, hire and reward if you charge mileage, and personal accident cover if you want it, while the liability cover and the checks on you are arranged once rather than for every new client. Self-employed carer documents lists what else to have ready alongside your insurance.

1. 1

   Ring your insurer and say exactly what the car is used for

   Before your first visit

   Say whether it is business use, hire and reward, or both, and name the job: paid care work, carrying a client. A vague description gets a vague answer.
2. 2

   Ask for it in writing

   Before the first drive

   A certificate of insurance or a confirmation email, not a verbal assurance from a call centre. Keep it with the car, and keep a copy of any liability certificate you can send a family who asks to see it.
3. 3

   Decide on personal accident cover

   This week

   Weigh what a few weeks without income would cost you against a specialist policy's premium. Public liability and PrimeCarers' cover protect a client's claim against you, not your own injury.
4. 4

   Review it whenever anything changes

   Ongoing

   A different car, a new client who wants to be driven, or taking on work outside the platform can all change what your policy needs to say. Most insurers can adjust cover mid-term for a small administration charge.