Holiday Home Insurance and the Employers Liability Tracing Office

Last Updated on August 15, 2011 by admin

The Employers Liability Tracing Office (ELTO) is a new independent industry body which has been set up to make it easier for injured employees to trace their employer’s Employers Liability (EL) insurers. Given the long-tail nature of EL insurance, sometimes by the time a claim arises, it can be difficult to determine who the EL insurers were.

To solve this industry issue, a centralised Employers Liability Database (ELD) has been set up which will contain details of new and renewed EL policies.

What does this mean for you as a Boshers Holiday Home Insurance policyholder?

Our holiday home insurance policy is a commercial insurance contract which includes Employers Liability cover to protect you in the event of anyone who you may employ in connection with your holiday home holding you liable for personal injury or damages. These may include, cleaners, caretakers, gardeners, a handyman or clerical staff for some larger complexes.

We need to collect and record additional information when we do new business with you and when we renew your holiday home insurance policy. From the 1st August 2011 we have made it mandatory to collect the Employers Reference Number (ERN)* otherwise known as the Employer PAYE reference for all new business transactions where applicable, or confirmation that you do not employ anybody or that you are exempt because your employees below the PAYE threshold. In practice, this means we will be requesting ERN numbers from you when placing new business over the phone. We are also in the process of improving our systems in order that we may collect this information for all of our existing holiday home policyholders.

*The ERN is often referred to on tax forms as employer’s PAYE reference and is provided by HMRC to every business registered with them as an employer. It can be found on

many official documents such as P11D, P45 and P60. If the business has more than one ERN, you must individually provide each number together with the name of the subsidiary company. Some employers who pay all their employees below the PAYE threshold (£503.00 monthly) will be exempt as they do not have an ERN. An example of a P11D is shown with the ERN highlighted. The first part relates to the tax office number (in the example shown 671) this part comprises 3 numeric characters in the range 001 – 999. The second part is the reference number which contains either 1 or 2 alpha characters followed by a number. We require both parts; in the example shown you would supply 671/E1208