Swiss household employment
Accident insurance (UVG): what your household must insure
Also written: UVG · LAA · LAINF
What is accident insurance (UVG), and who must be insured?
Every person your household employs must be insured against accidents at work from the first day, however few the hours, and against accidents outside work from 8 hours a week with your household. Your household takes out the policy with an authorised insurer.
How to take out the policyWhat it means if you employ someone at home
Your household takes out the policy before the first day of work and pays the premium. It keeps a record of the wage and the days worked, declares the wages paid after each year so the final premium can be worked out, and reports an accident to the insurer as soon as it learns of it. The policy covers the person you employ, your Helper, not your household.
Who your household must insure
Your household insures every person it employs in your home, whatever the work: cleaning, childcare, care or the garden. The Federal Office of Public Health names household staff and cleaning staff in private households among the people who must be insured.
The duty has no minimum wage and no minimum hours. Cover starts on the first day of the employment, or from the moment your Helper sets out for their first day of work if that is earlier.
There is no upper age limit. If your Helper is past retirement age, they are insured too, and their wage counts as insured wage even where no old age and survivors insurance (AHV) contributions are due because of their age.
If your Helper also works for other households, each household insures the work done for it. Another household's policy does not cover the hours in your home.
The law eases the duty for households that employ only young people on a small wage. It applies if every person you employ meets each of these conditions: they are young, up to the end of the year they turn 25; they earn at most CHF 750 in a calendar year with you; and they have not asked for AHV contributions. For them no insurer is assigned to you, and you owe a substitute premium only if any of them has an accident that the compulsory insurance covers; it is then never doubled or raised to a multiple. The section on households without a policy explains the substitute premium.
How your household takes out the policy
Choose an insurer from the list of authorised accident insurers that the Federal Office of Public Health keeps. Your Helper has a say in that choice. The federal accident insurance institution does not insure private households.
Federal Office of Public Health: list of authorised accident insurersSome compensation offices offer accident insurance for households, provided by an authorised insurer they work with. If yours does and your household meets its conditions, you can take the cover through the office instead of choosing an insurer yourself, and settle the premium together with your contributions. Your Helper has a say in this choice too. Under the scheme your household stays the employer: it owes the premium and reports an accident directly to the insurer. Its website has the details and the form to sign up.
If you choose the insurer yourself, the policy is a contract between your household and the insurer, in your household's name. Either way, the cover must run from the first day of work, and it cannot be backdated.
If you use the simplified settlement procedure, tell your compensation office which insurer covers your Helper.
What the premium is and who pays it
Your household pays the premium for accidents at work and occupational disease.
Under federal law the premium for accidents outside work is the employee's, and you may deduct it from the wage unless your canton's standard contract for household work or your own agreement puts some or all of it on you. The page on accidents outside work (NBU) explains when it applies and how to deduct it.
The premium is a share of the wage, and an insurer may charge a minimum premium. Each insurer sets its rate in its tariff.
The law sets the benefits of this compulsory insurance, and every authorised insurer must provide at least those benefits.
If your household has no policy yet
A policy cannot start in the past, so take out the policy now. For the time already worked without a policy, you owe a substitute premium to the substitute fund set up by the law: declare that time to the fund yourself.
The substitute premium equals the premium you should have paid, with interest. Where the lapse is inexcusable, it is doubled instead, and if it happens again it can be raised to a multiple of the premium.
The substitute premium covers the time without a policy, up to 5 years back.
If your Helper has an accident and your household has no policy, the substitute fund pays the benefits. It then charges your household a substitute premium, which you may not deduct from the wage.
Leaving your Helper uninsured on purpose is an offence, punishable with a monetary penalty.
After an accident
Your Helper tells you about the accident, and you report it to your accident insurer straight away.
The insurance pays for appropriate medical treatment of the accident's effects.
If the accident leaves your Helper unable to work, the insurance pays a daily allowance from the third day after the day of the accident. For full incapacity it is 80 % of the insured wage; for partial incapacity it is reduced accordingly.
The daily allowance and any pension are calculated on the wage up to CHF 148’200 a year.
Accident insurance does not cover illness. The page on sickness daily allowance insurance (KTG) explains the cover when your Helper is ill.
Sources: Bundesgesetz über die Unfallversicherung (UVG), Art. 1a, 3, 10, 15, 16, 17, 45, 59, 66, 68, 69, 70, 73, 80, 91, 92, 93, 95 and 112; Verordnung über die Unfallversicherung (UVV), Art. 13, 22 and 99; Bundesgesetz über die AHV (AHVG), Art. 14; Verordnung über die AHV (AHVV), Art. 34d; Bundesgesetz über die Krankenversicherung (KVG), Art. 1a; the AHV/IV leaflets on compulsory accident insurance, on contributions on small wages and on the simplified settlement procedure; the compensation offices' pages on their accident insurance for households; the Federal Office of Public Health page on who is insured; and the substitute fund's answers on the duty to insure.
Checked on 15 October 2026
Common questions
My cleaner comes only a few hours a week. Do I still need accident insurance?
Yes. The duty does not depend on the hours or on how long the job lasts, so they are insured from the first day, in a temporary job too. Below 8 hours a week with your household, the cover is for accidents at work and occupational disease, and an accident on the way to or from your home counts as an accident at work. You pay the premium for this cover.
Does my household liability policy cover this?
No. Household liability insurance pays for damage you cause to others. Accident insurance for your Helper is a separate, compulsory policy.
Is the accident cover in my Helper's own health insurance enough?
No. Accident cover in health insurance pays only where no accident insurance under the law pays. If you should have insured your Helper and they have an accident, the substitute fund set up by the law pays instead of the health insurer and charges your household.
What will the insurance cost me?
It depends on the insurer's tariff and on the wage. The wage calculator shows the accident insurance lines for your household and canton. Where your compensation office publishes a rate for its accident scheme, a line shows an amount; otherwise it shows that the amount is as billed by your insurer.
Who checks that I have the insurance?
The canton, usually through its compensation office. You must give that office the information it asks for.