Benefits for your home helper

Medical, death and disability insurance for your domestic worker may be just a few clicks and very little monthly outlay away

● Employee benefits play a huge role in ensuring that those employed in the formal sector provide for their retirement and are protected from catastrophic financial events such as illness, death or disability.

Many in the informal sector do not enjoy similar perks. These include more than a million domestic workers.

Umbrella retirement funds serving multiple employers do provide services to small employers, but advisers are typically only interested in servicing those likely to pay over premiums and contributions that earn meaningful commissions.

This often leaves the employees in microenterprises, where the majority earn below the tax threshold of R78,150 (about R6,500 a month), without any sort of cover or savings incentive.

However, technology is fuelling the development of products accessible to small employers. Whether you employ someone to help you run a small business or to work in your home, there are ways you can make your employee less financially vulnerable with savings or fully or partially subsidised medical, death and disability cover.

On this page, Money explores a few of these options.

Picture: The Herald Domestic workers enjoy few of the benefits extended to formal-sector workers, but insuring them is simple.