What if your au pair is injured while on duty?

[FeatheredHeart]

My cleaner, with whom I have no formal contract, had an accident here at work today and I took her to hospital. She is going to be ok. She is also a friend and I don't think there is any question of raising anything against us but it did get me wondering about insurance etc.

I am about to take on an au pair who will have a contract.

Anyone know if / how we should be covered (and for what ?) if a cleaner or a/p has an accident while at work?

Your home insurance policy will usually provide some level of cover for a domestic employee. Like any insurance, what it actually covers will vary from provider.

Read policy booklets carefully - MoreThan Home Insurance policy booklet seems to me to only include a domestic employee if they Live With You. This is how I am interpreting how that policy document is written - so if anyone has insurance via MoreThan and have a live-out employee, then can you confirm that MoreThan are saying they only cover a live-in employee, or if it covers live-out employees as well?

Ring your house insurance people and see if you have employer liability insurance -we have..it covers nannies, I assume it covers au pairs too.

If anyone to whom you owe a duty of care suffers a loss as a result of an accident which is due at least in part to your negligence, they may have a claim against you.

Most home contents insurance policies cover you against such claims, but you should check the terms. For instance most policies will exclude anyone employed by you in a business (as opposed to a domestic employee), so you must take out employers liability insurance for them.

Nick, you are not reading that policy document right. It says it does cover 'The legal liability of your family ... as an employer to any of your family?s domestic employees' (my emphasis).

If you are looking at the exclusion of 'Injury, death, disease or illness to any of your family (other than your domestic employees who normally live with you)' then I agree that this is not very helpfully worded, but what it is saying is 'we won't cover any of your family under this clause: domestic employees living with you are not part of your family so they will still be covered'. It could go on to say 'domestic employees not living with you are obviously not part of your family so they are covered anyway', but it doesn't. However, because this is obvious it doesn't need to.

Clear as mud, I am sure

Yep, it's the "live with you" bit that I found confusing. Glad I'm reading it wrong, as I would have thought it unusual for an insurer not to cover a live-out domestic employee. As you say, clear as mud!