What You Need to Know About Insuring Young Employees
When you look at your young employees, you could be looking at the future of your business. Therefore, you should look after these employees carefully – and, in your drive to do so, you shouldn’t skimp on insurance.
Insuring your fledgelings can have different implications to insuring those employees with visibly more wrinkles and grey hairs. Here are some example instances of how you might need to exercise extra care to meet your younger workers’ insurance requirements.
Employers’ liability insurance
The most crucial form of business insurance is employers’ liability insurance, for one simple reason: it is required by law. This is the case for close to all businesses, anyway; you must have employers’ liability insurance if you employ at least one person, as Startups.co.uk clarifies.
You could be in trouble if you lack that insurance – or you do, except that the insurer having provided it is not authorised. In either instance, each day without the proper insurance could land you a £2,500 fine. Failing to display this insurance or, when an inspector requests, produce it for them could bring a £1,000 fine on top of that.
It’s a different situation if, right now, your business has no employees. This could be the case if you have only recently set up the company and so haven’t yet recruited anyone. Furthermore, if the company has not been incorporated as a limited one, while only close family members are in your employ, this situation would also exempt you from needing employers’ liability insurance.
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You would, however, need the insurance if you use temporary employees, students on work experience, or volunteers. Such workers can particularly easily include young people who are still yet to make the transition to full-time work.
However, you mustn’t overlook your insurance obligations to them. Indeed, having employers’ liability insurance means that, if any of these young workers become ill or injured due to working for your company, you can get help in paying compensation.
Van insurance
Your company might have employees who often need to drive. This could be for transporting documents or other items that are bulkier and heavier than these; however, it is illegal for someone to drive on UK roads if they are not covered by car insurance of at least third party cover.
For when particularly large objects need to be transported, your business might also have to use vans. Anyone who drives these vans would legally need van insurance; unfortunately, for young employees, it could be tricky to source this insurance at an attractive cost.
This can be attributed to young people being relatively inexperienced drivers and, thus, likelier to be involved in accidents. This makes them riskier to insurers, who have to hike up premiums to account for this. It doesn’t help that young drivers are also barred from taking a no claims discount, which would otherwise permit them a discount reaching 65% if they avoid making claims on their vehicle.
However, this doesn’t strictly mean that finding cost-effective van insurance for younger drivers is a lost cause. An insurance broker could help you break the deadlock. Call Wiser, for example, is a Hampshire-based broker which can speedily compare van insurance policies available to people in the 17-24 age bracket.
After completing this comparison, Call Wiser can proceed to give you a quote for the most appealing policy it has uncovered in its search. This can assist you in overcoming the frustrating situation of seeing insurers offering van insurance priced as though your young employees are bad drivers and so ought to be subjected to relatively high premiums.
When calling Call Wiser from a landline, you would also be spared any call charges, while you would be under no obligation to accept the quote that the broker presents to you. All of this helps boost the convenience of using this broker’s services.
Private medical insurance
You might have many ideas for perks to give your young employees. However, you might not have realised how appreciative those workers could be if you offer health insurance. A CBI survey cited by Startups.co.uk has found it to be the most effective extra for small businesses to offer to their staff.
The significant appeal of private medical insurance does make much sense. Many of us heavily rely on publically funded healthcare, as paying for private care would be beyond our financial reach. However, seeking treatment on the NHS commonly means having to join a lengthy waiting list. Long waiting times can actually be avoided by people who hold private medical insurance.
Many young people on your payroll might be in relatively good health compared to their older cohorts and so less likely to draw upon insurance of this kind. Still, those young workers could also be on lower pay and, for that reason, likely to appreciate the financial safety net that private medical insurance would give them.
There are also policies on which small children can be included. You can readily imagine how much this could be embraced by those young workers who have recently started families.
As with plentiful other forms of insurance, including the previously cited employers’ liability insurance and van insurance, a broker is good to turn to if you want an especially apt private medical insurance policy. That policy could also enable a young worker to, during their treatment, have their own room rather than need to share a ward with other patients.