The cover has been launched by the insurance company Zego and covers more than 80 different professions, including social care, hairdressing and accountancy.
At present, self-employed workers must choose between working without insurance, which leaves them liable to hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of potential claims for damages in the event of an accident, or an annual insurance policy, even if they just want to work a couple of hours or days in a year.
The new pay-as-you-go insurance cover is available for periods as short as a single hour so that workers only pay when they work, and is also available through a smartphone app.
It also covers work across multiple professions, for example a freelance graphics designer who also works as a wedding photographer.
Zego already provides driving and delivery insurance for workers in the gig-economy, with more than a third of customers working across multiple work platforms.
“This is about making insurance fit for the modern world where people don’t necessarily work full time or in just one profession,” said Zego Chief Executive, Harry Franks.
“We thought it was wrong that if I wanted to do a couple of hours work on the side I’d need an annual policy, so decided to do something about it. Insurance had to change.
“I saw first-hand while working at Deliveroo how insurance was stopping people getting into gig-work and when they did, potentially forcing them to work full time just to cover the cost of an annual policy.
“At Zego, we have already provided over eight million hours of flexible cover to tens of thousands of customers, but self-employment is so much bigger than transport. This is about protecting people exactly when they need it, in all the types of work that they may wish to do. That’s good for them and it’s good for their customers.”
