Health insurance and homeworkers
Among employers and employees, there still remains some uncertainty over how those working from home are covered by health insurance
Recent advances in communications technologies, for example more efficient email systems and internet telephony, have proved a god -send for British workers looking to adopt a more flexible lifestyle.
Rather than endure a long and arduous commute every day or pay for childcare, thousands of workers are now opting to spend some of their working week logging on and getting on with their jobs from the comfort of their own homes, with many even going weeks without seeing their colleagues.
However, given that the Health and Safety Executive recently reported that between 2006 and 2007, some 2.2 million people were suffering from an illness they believed was either caused or made worse by their current or past employment, it is highly likely that, sooner or later, a home-based worker could fall ill or get injured, potentially leaving employers in an insurance grey-zone.
This confusion is likely to have led to a number of bosses deciding not to roll out flexible working within their firms, while many more workers could be entitled to make a claim for a work-related injury, despite the fact that it occurred when they were in the comfort of their own home.
Linda Devereux, director of the NGH, said: "If homeworkers are employed by a company then the liability is the same wherever they are - long dash if they're working on-site, as drivers… Lots of companies have members of staff who don't solely work on the premises.
"So long as the insurer's totally aware of all the different circumstances of their employees, they should be able to incorporate that within the policy."
In this respect, therefore, British homeworkers are not at a disadvantage when compared to their office-based counterparts.
However, this arrangement, as with all insurance policies, it dependent upon workers being totally honest with their insurers about their particular circumstances, even if it means paying that little bit extra for a policy.
On an optimistic note, it is to be assumed that a majority of homeworkers have the necessary amount of self-discipline to ensure that they meet their targets without their boss spurring them on.
As such, taking a few minutes to fill insurers in on any possible gaps in their information shouldn't be too big an ask, and it could end up saving both the worker and their company a lot of time, money and hassle.
