Expected to use personal laptop for work - insurance?

[SE13Mummy]

I'm a teacher and use my own laptop for preparing lessons, resources, assessments, reports etc. etc. Having looked at the small print on my contents insurance I've noticed that although laptops are included, they are excluded if they are: "...property held or used for any profession, business or employment".

Presumably that means that my laptop and DH's (he's also a teacher) is uninsured? Once upon a time I had a school laptop for use at home thanks to the 'Laptops for teachers' scheme but that was a decade ago and I'm no longer at that school.

Does anyone have any advice/bright ideas as to how I can ensure our laptops are insured but without the school having to buy every single teacher a laptop?!

You're right, normal contents insurance won't cover you for working from home. You need to get specific cover for that and it will increase your premiums.
Working from home usually means insurance for office equipment, which it doesn't sound like you need.

You could check with your school if they are covered, although you say it's expected rather than required iyswim. Do they have a home working policy? Usually home workers are required to arrange their own insurance.

Since you only work from home on an occasional basis would you just not mention it in the event of a claim?

Or if you're not comfortable with that, take it up with your employers or your union?

If there is a break-in or fire at your home then the cover for your laptop is not going to be affected by the work you were doing on it before you last shut it down but if you want it to be covered in school then you are going to need to talk to your insurers about appropriate all risks cover.

You should see if the school will contribute to the cost. If it's vital for your job they should be grateful you're not asking them to get you a computer.

Realistically, if your laptop is stolen at home in a burglary and you have the receipt then the insurers will not care if you've typed some assessments on it, because it's a normal part of household kit (any more than they'd care that you watched Teachers TV on the telly).

If you had 3 computers (your work/his work/personal) it might be different and if you take it into school it is a problem and you need to discuss it with your employers.

Yes you should check out the data protection issue, it could be serious
(a company I worked for used to have client info on laptops with insufficient security/encryption, some were nicked, there were HUGE repercussions, cost them a mint).

I would also think that the insurer's policy is to protect them from claims where the value of the claim is inflated by the value of the information lost (and work/client info can be extremely valuable). You might be able to negotiate something with the reinsurer by signing a declaration that you will only be claiming for the value of your personal laptop and that it is mainly used for personal not work reasons.

Also re backing up your information - do you have a work email? Might be handy to get into the habit of forwarding everything you have worked on to your email each night. Then, if your laptop dies/goes astray, you will be able to log in using a school computer to retrieve the info.

Thanks for the replies. I do have a school e-mail address and always forward documents to myself/save them on the appropriate 'virtual learning platform'. Also, any assessment/report-type documents i.e. those that contain sensitive/confidential information are encrypted and password protected in accordance with the data protection instructions from the LA.

Unfortunately, working at home is not something that I do 'occasionally' - I do it nearly every evening for a few hours - and so I would not feel at all comfortable lying about that were I to ever make a claim. Quite apart from anything else, anyone repairing my laptop would encounter folders and folders full of lesson resources I've created, display labels, visual timetables, letters arranging school trips/concerts/events etc. etc. so not the sort of thing that could be explained away by occasional use for work/being a keen home educator (with a class of 30 and who happens to work in a school ).

I'll investigate the insurance on offer through my teaching union and will also talk to the school about it. I imagine that the vast majority of teachers at my school will be in the same position.

It's not a matter of lying, the point is that your laptop is no more likely to be stolen, destroyed in a fire etc. if you have been using it to go on facebook, do school work or surf the internet for pictures of buff models in swimwear. Don't get conned into buying insurance you don't need.

Look again at the small print, if it really does say that without any qualification (such as 'other than business equipment owned by you and used to conduct business at your home up to £5,000 in total') the term is almost certainly unfair and you should seek clarification from your insurer and/or raise a complaint.

... DilysPrice's analogy of watching Teachers TV is a good one - you wouldn't expect your TV to suddenly become uninsured if you did that.