Home Workers Get Extra Cover

AVIVA has extended its home insurance to automatically cover £5,000 of business equipment in home offices as standard on its home insurance policies.

With more than 1m people working from home at least one day a week, the need for the extra cover is increasing, and it is expected that a quarter of the working population will be in their home office by 2020.

Furniture and equipment used for business or professional purposes, including filing cabinets, desks, computers, printers, typewriters, photocopiers, answer and fax machines will all be covered.

Julie Fromant, home lifestyle manager at Aviva UK said: "The work landscape is constantly changing and a quarter of the population is expected to work from home at least once a week by 2020. Mums and dads choosing to work flexi hours, the growing number of freelancers and higher levels of redundancy all mean that home working has become a real alternative to the corporate office.

"We recognise the growing trend in home working and that for many, working from home requires additional investments that need to be protected. We felt it was right that this should be covered as standard, as part of the home contents policy and hope this provides extra security for home workers in the UK."

The cover is available to all new customers and existing customers when they renew their policy.

Aviva's top tips for home-workers:

1. If your home office space is a separate room, make sure you have a door lock and keep it locked when not in use. Keeping your office as a separate, out of bounds space to children and pets will help to prevent unwanted accidents, keeping both your equipment and the people involved safe.
2. Keep office equipment covered up or out of reach of pets and children when not in use - most importantly for their own safety but also to minimise risk of damage to the equipment.
3. Certain office supplies and equipment, like shredders for example, present a great safety risk to children and pets. Look out for products available in the market that are designed for safety.
4. Keep valuable items out of sight from opportunist thieves.
5. Mark items with indelible identification - showing your postcode and the number of your house or flat - using an ultra-violet marking pen.
6. Take pictures and write down the serial numbers of valuable items such as your computer and scanning/printing equipment, to help the police identify them should be recovered after a burglary.
7. Ask your local police station for ‘postcoded property' stickers to display in the front and back windows of your house.