Working from home: The fine line in your insurance
Working from home: The fine line in your insurance
In a COVID-19 world, can you run your business by the bylaws?
When a driver rear-ended her and she heard a snap in her back, the latter woman knew something was wrong. After reporting the car accident to her auto insurance company and undergoing a couple of weeks of physical therapy, she thought she was in the clear. She had both types of insurance (health and auto), so what could possibly get in her way? It turns out her entire reason for being in her car was the problem.
The woman, a former co-worker of mine, was a Lyft driver. And the minute her auto insurance company found out that she was not traveling for personal reasons, and her car was not covered for business travel, her claim was dismissed. While she was still covered for health insurance, she was held financially responsible for all car damage. She didn’t purposely leave out her ride-sharing hustle; she just didn’t do it enough to consider it a full-time job. But by not clarifying that ahead of time, she (literally) paid the price later.
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Unfortunately she won’t be the first or the last to face this problem. And in a coronavirus world where social isolation is the primary rule of thumb, some people are having to make tough decisions. For full-timers in Corporate America who can do their jobs from home, the financial strains may not be as complicated. Even for freelancers who were already working from home, social isolation may be just another day. But what about that middle group? The ones who are trying to make ends meet and are taking on new and creative jobs to produce missing income? This may be the group who becomes the victim to what insurance companies will and won’t tolerate.