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Insurance for the self-employed, starting from less than £55* per year
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Get a QuoteOur standard cover is:
Self-employed insurance isn’t one policy; it’s the small stack of covers that stand in for everything an employer used to provide. When you work for yourself, there’s no company policy behind you: one accident, one professional mistake or one month off sick lands directly on your own finances.
Professional Saver builds that stack into a single adjustable policy for self-employed people and sole traders, from £55* a year. Public liability, products liability, legal expenses and financial loss cover come as standard; professional indemnity, income protection and equipment cover join as options when your work needs them. Quote online in five minutes and your documents are ready the same day.
Self-employed insurance is the umbrella term for the types of business insurance a person needs when they work for themselves, whether as a sole trader, a freelancer or through their own limited company. There’s no employer’s policy to fall back on, so the covers that protect your income, your equipment and your legal position all have to be arranged by you.
The right combination depends on what you do. A tutor with pupils visiting a home office, a consultant advising on £100,000 decisions and a photographer hauling kit between venues face different risks, and their insurance policies should look different too. That’s why ours is built cover by cover rather than sold as one-size-fits-all.
Save on your insurance Customers are always telling us how much they saved by switching
Trusted for over 40 years We’ve been providing insurance to businesses since 1984
Financial Strength Insurance provided by a Standard & Poor’s ‘AA- Stable’ rated insurer
Our Professional Saver Insurance (Covea) has been independently rated 5 Stars by Defaqto – the highest possible rating, awarded to excellent products with a comprehensive range of features and benefits.
Complete our simple quote form with basic details about your business.
Get an instant quote & choose any optional covers you may need.
Instantly activate your Professional Saver policy and view your certificates online.
The foundation. Self-employed public liability insurance covers compensation and legal fees if a client or member of the public is injured, or their property damaged, because of your work: a pupil slipping on your stairs, a coffee across a client’s laptop. It comes automatically with every Professional Saver policy, with £1 million of cover as standard and options up to £10 million.
If clients act on your advice, designs or services, professional indemnity insurance covers claims that your work cost them money. For consultants, advisers, accountants and other knowledge professionals, this is usually the cover client contracts ask about first. It’s an optional cover you add during the quote.
Self-employed people don’t get sick pay, which is what income protection insurance exists to fix. Short term income protection replaces part of your income while illness or injury keeps you from working, which for a one-person business can matter more than any liability cover: the business’s earning capacity is you.
Your laptop, camera, tools and office kit aren’t covered by home contents insurance once they’re business equipment. Business contents and equipment cover protects the things your work depends on, with a £100 excess.
The moment you take on help, even part-time or temporary, employers’ liability insurance usually becomes a legal requirement. Sole traders without staff don’t need it; add it to your policy when that changes.
Mostly, no. Public liability insurance isn’t a legal requirement for the self-employed, and neither is professional indemnity. The exception is employers’ liability, which the law requires as soon as you employ someone who isn’t close family.
In practice, the law is rarely the thing that forces the decision. Client contracts, agencies, venues and local authorities routinely demand proof that you have public liability insurance in place, often at £1 million or £2 million, before you can start work. For regulated professions, professional bodies set professional indemnity minimums too. The insurance is less about legal compliance and more about staying eligible for the work you want.
Almost certainly, and this is the most common blind spot we see. Home insurance typically won’t cover business activities or business equipment, so a client injured during a home visit, or a stolen work laptop, can fall between your home policy’s exclusions. If clients, students or couriers visit, public liability cover matters even though you never leave the house; if your kit earns your living, contents cover matters wherever it lives.
Running a business from home doesn’t raise your premium the way people fear. Low-footfall, home-based work usually sits at the cheaper end of the range.
Professional Saver policies start from £55* a year, and the from-price is genuinely self-employed shaped: our real quote example of £55* a year (including insurance premium tax) is for a sole-trader business advisory service with no employees and no claims. The cost of self-employed insurance then moves with your profession, where you work, the optional covers you add and the level of cover you choose, and you can pay in monthly instalments.
If you compare self-employed insurance quotes elsewhere, check what’s in the base price. Ours includes public liability, products liability, legal expenses and financial loss cover before any options are added.
Being self-employed means every risk is yours, but so is every choice. Build your policy cover by cover, from £55* a year, backed by more than 40 years of insuring UK professionals and small businesses, and an insurer rated AA- (Stable) by Standard & Poor’s. Get your quote online, or call 0800 121 8748 and talk it through.
With 35+ years experience covering SMEs, you can trust Professional Saver to protect your business. Our key advantages are:
Join the thousands of UK policyholders we protect – get an instant quote online today or call us on 0800 121 8748 to speak with our friendly team.
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£54.88 / year £34.98 / month £387.52 / year The above quote examples were taken from our online system on 10/11/25 and include insurance premium tax but exclude our £10 admin charge. These are real quotes but your own personal quote will vary dependent upon your circumstances and the level of cover you require.
Most insurance policies will be subject to an excess. This is the amount you will be expected to pay in the event of a claim. Detailed below are the standard excesses under a Professional Saver policy but you should check your own quotation to see exactly what excesses apply to your policy as these may vary dependent upon the type of work you do.
| Insurance cover | Excess |
|---|---|
| Public Liability | £250 |
| Products Liability | £250 |
| Employers Liability | No Excess |
| Financial Loss | 10% of claim value(£2,500 minimum) |
| Professional Indemnity | £250 |
| Business Contents & Equipment | £100 |
| Legal Expenses | No Excess |
* Total number of live policies as of 31/10/2025
From only£55per year From only£55per year From only£55per year From only£55per year From only£55per year No. But many clients, venues and councils won’t work with you without it, and they’ll usually name the limit they expect. Treat it as commercially compulsory even though legally it’s your choice: the cost of being uninsurable to your best client is far higher than the premium.
One cover changes from optional to legally required: employers’ liability, which most UK employers must hold from the first day someone works for them. With us that’s an addition to your existing policy rather than a new one. The rest of your covers simply carry on.
Usually, yes. HMRC generally treats business insurance premiums as an allowable expense, so the cost can normally be set against your taxable profits. Your accountant can confirm how that applies to your setup.
The same day. Run the insurance quote online, choose your insurance options, and your policy documents appear in our secure portal straight after purchase, which helps when a client is holding a contract open waiting for your certificate.
The covers are the same; the pressure points differ. If your work is contract-by-contract for agencies and end clients, our freelance insurance page speaks to that world directly, including the contract clauses that usually name the cover you need.
