Legal protection insurance - please recommend

[Freedom]

Hi all,

As per my other thread, trying to sort out a dodgy IT recruitment agency. I hope to update it soon.

From now on, I am urgently going to get some kind of legal protection insurance, in case of any future agency or other decide to break contractual obligations or simply decide not to pay!

For instance QDOS provide something like this: Freelancer Legal Protection
PCG also have something in place, but I am concerned that it is brutally expensive, while they are being secretive about the benefit that you get from it!

Can anybody recommened some other good providers of legal protection insurance?

Many thanks!

[malvolio]

Hi all,

As per my other thread, trying to sort out a dodgy IT recruitment agency. I hope to update it soon.

From now on, I am urgently going to get some kind of legal protection insurance, in case of any future agency or other decide to break contractual obligations or simply decide not to pay!

For instance QDOS provide something like this: Freelancer Legal Protection
PCG also have something in place, but I am concerned that it is brutally expensive, while they are being secretive about the benefit that you get from it!

Can anybody recommened some other good providers of legal protection insurance?

Many thanks!

PCG Plus. £220 covers all tax investigations plus free legal and tax advice helplines plus agency default insurance plus assorted extras worth a total of around £1000.

If that's your idea of brutally expensive, either you're totally deluuded or we have to ask who you are working for.

As for secretive, phone them up and ask them. You may be pleasantly surprised.

[DeludedAussie]

PCG Plus. £220 covers all tax investigations plus free legal and tax advice helplines plus agency default insurance plus assorted extras worth a total of around £1000.

If that's your idea of brutally expensive, either you're totally deluuded or we have to ask who you are working for.

As for secretive, phone them up and ask them. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Do you work for the PCG?

[northernladuk]

Do you work for the PCG?

I point people at Google nearly every other post.. I don't work for google.....

[Freedom]

PCG Plus. £220 covers all tax investigations plus free legal and tax advice helplines plus agency default insurance plus assorted extras worth a total of around £1000.

If that's your idea of brutally expensive, either you're totally deluuded or we have to ask who you are working for.

As for secretive, phone them up and ask them. You may be pleasantly surprised.

I phoned them and was UNpleasantly surprised. They could not clarify what they would cover because they wanted me to pay them first, and they are secretive. But their insurance for agency non-payment will only pay you a whopping 1000 pounds maximum. Really??? They want 220 per year for that. Really???

[malvolio]

I phoned them and was UNpleasantly surprised. They could not clarify what they would cover because they wanted me to pay them first, and they are secretive. But their insurance for agency non-payment will only pay you a whopping 1000 pounds maximum. Really??? They want 220 per year for that. Really???

I suspect it's not them being unpleasant; I've known them for eleven years and unpleasant or unhelpful is not how I'd describe them.

So what exactly are you asking for; free legal representation without having to go through a solicitor perhaps? Or insurance to cover you next time you take someone to court (something that doesn't actually exist, as I recall). To fight a case you have zero chance of winning, going by your other thread...

Since you're after recovering a serious amount of money, I'd have thought £120 up front for basic membership wasn't such a waste of money either, if it gets you what you seem to want; it is, after all, a service for its members.

BTW, the Agency Default cover is up to £7500, which is about as much as you should have outstanding at any one time anyway.



Odd isn't it, how the people who are tyring to fight all these early termination where the hell's my compensation I have every right to (insert as applicable) I've been screwed over by these tossers campaigns have such difficulty expalining what they want politely and concisely.

Does anyone think there's a causal link in operation....?

[Mister Clark]

BTW, the Agency Default cover is up to £7500, which is about as much as you should have outstanding at any one time anyway.

I have PCG Plus and think its a bargain (I specifically took it out because of the £7,500 default insurance which is bloody cheap compared to other quotes I got).

It's worth noting however that whoever PCG have taken the policy out with has an upper amount that can be claimed for across all insured parties (PCG Plus members in effect).

I can’t remember the limit (and I'm not inclined to go digging looking for it); but as an example if the limit were £75,000 the PCG would only be able to claim 10 lots of 7.5k (obviously, I don’t see this as a likely issue).

[tarbera]

shock horror - from the PCG website

Agency failure and default insurance | PCG

Did you atually phone the PCG or did you phone a takeway.?


Agency failure and default insurance
Business Interruption Benefit in respect of the Contractual Arrangements with Agencies
PCG has negotiated extended cover with effect from 1st September 2008 for its Insurance Policy which will allow PCGPlus members only to claim for loss of earnings in the following events and circumstances:

1. Business Failure of the Agency
If an Agency suffers bankruptcy whilst a PCGPlus member is engaged on an assignment and as a result that member is not paid for work, which has been verified by the End Client as having been undertaken, and is not subsequently paid by another Agency which may take over the administration of that engagement, then the PCGPlus member will be entitled to ask the PCG to make a claim on its policy for losses suffered to a maximum of £7,500 (net of VAT).

The losses will be limited to hours/days worked which the Agency was due to reimburse and will not include expenses that may have been incurred at the request of the End Client, which were due to be reimbursed by the End Client.

Claims cannot be made where payments are delayed by the Agency, or where the Agency is disputing the amount due because of failure of the member to claim for work undertaken.

All reasonable attempts must be made to pursue the debt and seek reimbursement from the Agency and any claim must take into account amounts recovered from the administrators or the courts.

Please note that there is a “Waiting Period” of 60 Days from the date from which a Member joins as, or upgrades to, Plus membership during which a claim will not be accepted. Any losses arising before the commencement of the Waiting Period, or in the Waiting Period itself will not be accepted.
2. Failure of the Agency to honour contractual arrangements.
This policy allows a claim to be made on behalf of a PCGPlus member for a maximum £1,000 in the following circumstances:

Where the contracted role is not as described by the Agency and/or contracted for by the member and the member’s contract is terminated by the Agency;
The Agency terminates without the required notice period stated in the contract;
The Contracted role does not exist or is withdrawn after contract is signed but before on-site date.
In order for a claim to be made, the contractor must be able to show that the reason for the role being terminated is not as a result of the contractor’s own actions and that there has been a loss of earnings because:

Another assignment has been turned down in favour of the engagement which has been terminated prematurely;
The replacement assignment is at a lower rate;
Costs have been incurred that cannot be reclaimed.
3. Aggregate Policy Limits
In addition to the individual claim limits, PCG’s policy has an aggregate limit of £500,000 to cover all claims made in any one period of insurance with an aggregate limit per individual agency of £100,000.

Therefore, if an agency was to fail with 50 PCGPlus members facing financial loss, then the maximum payout would be £2,000. If the full aggregate limit has been reached, no further claims would be accepted.

4 Payment of Claims
The amount of the contractual losses will be paid net of VAT, as the payment constitutes a compensation payment. Members can claim bad debt relief to recover the VAT from HMRC.

Please be aware that the administration process can be drawn out as before any claims can be met, Abbey Tax will need to establish how much has been recovered by the administrators or from any other sources.

5. Subrogation (assignment) of the debt
In many agency default claims there have been no dividend payouts from the administrator/liquidator, albeit each scenario will be different. Many members will not be in a position to wait until due process has been completed and therefore we are pleased to offer members the opportunity to receive the insurance recovery at the earliest possible moment.

There is no obligation to subrogate the debt and there is an administration charge associated with it.

The process which will allow Abbey Tax Protection (ATP) to meet the claim at the earliest opportunity is as follows:

Attached to the claim form is a draft 'Subrogation Letter' which the Member must reproduce on their company letterhead. This letter requests that the amount of the bad debt which is being claimed (see example below) is assigned to ATP.
Upon receipt of this letter, ATP will forward it to the administrator/liquidator
to seek confirmation that the Member has a valid claim against the agency and requesting the liquidators agreement to assign the part of the debt being claimed by the Member from ATP.
Once ATP receives confirmation of the debt and assignment of the value of the claim by the administrator to ATP, then this amount can be paid to the Member's company.
In the event that the administrator collects sufficient funds to make a dividend payout, then ATP, having paid out the full value of the claim, will receive the dividend paid relative to the amount already paid.
An example might best explain the process. Let us assume that the total outstanding debt is £12,500 and the Member is claiming the full £7,500 from ATP.
The administrator is able to pay 10 pence in the pound. ATP will receive £750 on the debt subrogated to us; the member will receive £500 on the balance of £5,000 of the remaining debt in addition to the £7,500 already received as paid out earlier by ATP.

ATP does, however, have a duty to protect Insurers’ interests and to ensure that no claimant receives more than they would have, had the insurance not been in place.

It is therefore necessary for the relevant proportion of the debt to be subrogated to ATP. However, by subrogating, as the above example shows, the member could be disadvantaged.

If we use the example of the £12,500 debt and the member waits until the end of the process, they would receive £1,250 (10% of the total debt), plus the £7,500 insurance claim i.e. £8,750 in total.

If the subrogation option is selected, the member will receive £7,500 now, but only £500 (10% of the £5,000 balance) at the end i.e. £8,000. (There will be other scenarios where this difference could be even more significant.)

Therefore where this situation occurs ATP will pay over the additional amount less a £250 administration fee which represents a charge for early payment.


6. Exclusions to the PCG’s Policy
Insurers shall not be liable to provide indemnity hereunder in respect of all claims:

Any claim made, brought or commenced outside the Territorial Limits;
Any claim where the Contractual Losses are capable of being reimbursed under any other policy or certificate or undertaking;
In respect of claims in connection with the business failure of the Agency:

Any cause or event occurring prior to or existing at inception of this Policy, or at the time a Designated Member acquired the right to cause the Policyholder to make a claim under the terms of this Policy, which the Policyholder or Member knew, or ought reasonably to have known, was likely to give rise to a claim;
Claims for work incurred after the administration or the bankruptcy of the Agency has been formally announced, or there it would be reasonable to believe due to previous non-payment of fees incurred that the Agency is in financial difficulty;
Claims for fees which have not been invoiced in accordance with the Agency’s procedures or the time limits within which the Agency will accept an invoice from the Member in respect of work undertaken;
Payments which are delayed by the Agency, or where the Agency is disputing the amount due because of failure of the Member to claim for work undertaken.
Amounts which have been reimbursed by other parties such as the courts or any Agency which has taken on the assignment and agreed to pay all or part of the outstanding amounts
In respect of claims in connection with the failure of the Agency to honour its contractual obligations where:
Another engagement is found either through an Agency or the endeavours of the Designated Member within 4 weeks of the original engagement being scheduled to begin.
The commencement date of the engagement being delayed by less than 4 weeks
Sub-standard work has been performed by the Member.

[Freedom]

Yes, see 2. Failure of the Agency to honour contractual arrangements.
This policy allows a claim to be made on behalf of a PCGPlus member for a maximum £1,000

[TheFaQQer]

I phoned them and was UNpleasantly surprised. They could not clarify what they would cover because they wanted me to pay them first, and they are secretive. But their insurance for agency non-payment will only pay you a whopping 1000 pounds maximum. Really??? They want 220 per year for that. Really???

No, they want you to pay £220 a year for a package of benefits, which includes coverage if the agency doesn't pay you AND you can prove that there was a material loss. There are a range of other benefits, though.

Yes, see 2. Failure of the Agency to honour contractual arrangements.
This policy allows a claim to be made on behalf of a PCGPlus member for a maximum £1,000

That is correct. I'm not sure how that makes them secretive, though.