Contractors & Freelancers Insurance

Flexible insurance to suit the varied work you do

Life moves fast for contractors and freelancers, jobs crop up suddenly and you've got to have the flexibility to take on new work quickly. Whether you're moving from one company to another in a short space of time or handling a variety of projects for different clients, the last thing you want to deal with is any extra admin.

At Direct Line for Business, we offer flexible insurance that can be personalised to reflect the ever-changing needs of your business, so you don't need to take out a new policy every time your job changes.

We can cover you whether you work from home, a co-working space, at an office or a client's premises.

Build your own insurance package

Whether you're a journalist or party planner, the freelance and contracting life offers a lot of freedom. However, being self-employed also means you're solely responsible for sorting out any disruptions to your business.

If your equipment gets stolen, the office you usually work in becomes unusable due to a fire, or someone makes a claim against your work, you will need to deal with the financial implications. Luckily, you can cover yourself for these potential disruptions with our business insurance for contractors and freelancers.

Using our unique online quote tool, you can select the different types of cover you need and create a personalised insurance policy that suits your line of work. This could include professional indemnity, which covers you if you're accused of making a mistake that costs a client money or causes them reputational damage, or public liability, which covers the costs you are required to pay if you accidentally damage someone's property or someone is injured by you or your staff.

There are many different things to consider when creating your insurance package: the type of services you offer, your premises and your equipment. Don't worry, if your circumstances change, or your business grows, you can amend your policy without having to pay any admin fees.

Organise your admin online

It's important to make sure all your documentation is in order as clients often ask for proof of insurance before a contract begins. When you insure with us, you can download proof of your policy the moment you set it up. Everything's online, so you can access your documents whenever and wherever you need them. Our documents only include the information that is relevant to you, so gone are the days of wading through pages of policy wording to find the bits you're covered for.

Professional indemnity

Professional indemnity is useful if your business offers a service or requires you to give advice to clients. If you make a professional error or give advice that is deemed negligent, you could be taken to court.

Professional indemnity insurance covers any legal and compensation costs you are required to pay. Clients will often ask to see proof of professional indemnity insurance before agreeing to work with a new contractor.
Public liability

Public liability insurance covers you if you cause injury to a member of the public or accidentally damage someone's property. An example of this could include a customer slipping on a wet floor in your shop or office and hurting themselves, or causing damage while carrying out building works on a client's house.

This insurance also covers you if a customer or member of the public becomes ill or suffers an injury because of a product you have supplied. For example, if the heel snaps off a shoe someone has bought from you, causing them to fall over, or if a cupcake you sell at an event makes someone sick.

If the people in question pursued legal action against you, public and product liability insurance would cover the costs you are liable to pay. We can offer cover from £1 million to £10 million.
Read more about public liability
Employers' liability

Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement if you have employees. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, which you can read more about here.

We cover you for £10 million, as standard. This covers the legal and compensation costs you are required to pay if an employee gets injured or becomes ill because of the work they do for you.
Contents and equipment cover

If you rent or own an office, you may want to cover your office contents, equipment and documents. You can also cover your expensive electrical items in case of damage, breakdown (excluding wear and tear) or theft.

We also offer a cover option that allows you to insure these items on the go, which is helpful if you go on site visits or work at different places. If your work laptop fell on the ground and the screen cracked, we'd cover the cost of replacing it.

And now with Business Tech Essentials, if your essential tech is stolen or damaged, we'll replace it within 24 hours from claim approval.

When you cover your electrical items and tech you get Business Tech Essentials. Which means if your essential tech - like laptops, mobiles or tablets - are stolen or damaged we'll replace them within 24 hours of claim approval.

Cover & claim limits apply. Mon - Fri 8am - 6pm, except Bank holidays.
Home emergency

Peace of mind, if you experience a sudden and unexpected issue, which can cause damage to your home, makes it unsafe or uninhabitable, home emergency's 24-hour claims line means help is never far away. You'll have a certified contractor, such as plumbers, electricians, glaziers, locksmiths, or drainage engineers at your home within 4 hours of your claim being registered, to make the property secure or prevent further damage. In addition, you have access to gas engineers, pest control services and roofers, but these are not subject to the 4-hour response time. Extreme weather and remote locations may extend the response time.

Up to £1,500 inc. VAT per claim for call-out charges, labour costs and materials for insured emergencies, such as issues with plumbing, heating or pest infestations.

There's no excess to pay and no limit on how often you can claim.

You can add home emergency to a Direct Line business policy, so long as you run your business from home and have home buildings insurance, home contents insurance or business contents insurance on your policy. It is available on new and renewal policies, it can't be added during the policy term.

Home emergency isn't currently available on policies that include commercial premises.

For more information click here.
Business interruption

Depending on the type of business you run, you might work from home, in an office, at your shop, a client's premises or a shared working space. If your working premises became unusable due to an insured event like a fire or flood, business interruption will cover the costs of relocating until it's fixed. It can also cover you for any lost turnover during this time if you've insured your premises or business property with us.

If your main supplier or customer suffers damage to their premises and can't trade, we'll cover you for the loss of business you'll suffer. Equally, if a market or fair that you regularly attend suffers a fire, we'll cover the lost turnover for the time you can't trade there. Business interruption will also cover you if key equipment that you use to run your business, like a laptop, is damaged or stolen, meaning you can't trade.

Our business interruption cover can insure you if you or one of your key employees becomes seriously disabled and is unable to continue work. We will cover the incurred costs, up to £25,000, to minimise any interruption to the business.
Cyber cover
If you hold sensitive customer data, process payments online or just want peace of mind, Cyber cover should be considered. Because cyber criminals can be clever. Catching you off-guard and tricking you in to doing something you shouldn't, like opening an attachment in a fake email, or finding a way through your cyber-security. If this happens and they get their hands on your data or access to your bank account, the impact on your business could be devastating.

But, with our Cyber cover, you can call the experts, 24/7. They'll be on it, helping you to stay in business and recover in three ways following a cyber incident:

Recover financially
- Covering loss of business income
- Covering recovery costs, like fixing damage to your computer systems or data restoration
- Covering fines (where insurable by law) and compensation costs following a data breach
Recover your reputation
- You get access to public relations and crisis management experts to minimise damage to your brand and business.
Recover your systems and help prevent future incidents
- Technical experts will help fix your IT issues and provide advice on how to prevent future cyber incidents.
Read more on Cyber cover here.

Available on new and renewal policies only. For Retail and Office & Professional customers only.
Legal expenses

This covers the legal costs of providing specialist lawyers and taking action against many common legal problems, for instance disputes with suppliers or clients. Legal expenses cover can only be used if there is at least a 51% chance that the claim will succeed.
Personal accident

Personal accident cover provides payment if anyone in your business between the ages 16-75 is unable to work because they've been injured in an accident, whether in a business or personal capacity.

We'll pay a lump sum of £50,000 if there is an accidental death, accidental loss of limbs or sight, or if someone in your business becomes permanently disabled following an accident.

If someone in your business is unable to work due to a temporary injury, then after 7 days we'll pay their normal net weekly earnings up to £500 for up to 104 weeks.

You can choose Personal Accident as an add-on once you've completed your quote.

Contractor & freelancer insurance

Price beat guarantee

Flexible insurance to suit the varied work you do

Build your own insurance package

Organise your admin online

Your cover options

Professional indemnity

Public liability

Employers' liability

Contents and equipment cover

Home emergency

Business interruption

Cyber cover

Recover financially

Recover your reputation

Recover your systems and help prevent future incidents

Legal expenses

Personal accident

Policy documents

How can we help?

Contact us