Can I claim if I was injured while working from home?

An employer's duty does not end at the office door

Since 2020 many people have done most or all of their work from home. That shift does not narrow your legal protection. An employer's duty of care, and the statutory health-and-safety framework that sits behind it, applies to homeworkers just as it does to workers on the employer's own premises. What changes is the practical way the duty is discharged — and, when things go wrong, the practical way a claim is proved.

The starting point is that if an injury arises out of a work activity, and the employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it, a claim is possible whether the activity happened in an office block or at a kitchen table.

The specific duties that apply to homeworkers

Two duties come up most often. The first is the general requirement to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the work being done. That includes assessing the home environment where the work is taking place — not by inspecting the property in person, but by understanding the equipment being used, the way tasks are performed, and any hazards the worker has flagged.

The second is the display screen equipment (DSE) regime, which applies to anyone who uses a computer or laptop for a significant part of their day. Employers must ensure a DSE workstation assessment is completed for those employees, wherever they work. That does not mean the employer must send an inspector to the house. It usually means providing a structured self-assessment form, reviewing what comes back, and providing suitable equipment — a proper chair, an external keyboard and monitor, a footrest — where the assessment shows one is needed.

Alongside these two, the general duty to provide a safe system of work applies. If the employer knows a worker's setup is unsuitable — for example, sitting on a dining chair for eight hours a day with a laptop on a coffee table — and does nothing about it, the ordinary tests of negligence apply.

What kinds of injuries lead to claims

Homeworking claims fall into two broad groups.

The first is cumulative musculoskeletal injury from unsuitable workstations: neck and shoulder pain, upper limb repetitive strain, lower back problems, wrist and forearm complaints. These build up over months. They are strongly associated with laptops used without external screens or keyboards, with makeshift seating, and with long unbroken periods of screen work. Our guide on repetitive strain injury claims covers this pattern in detail, and the wider consequences are set out in our office injuries hub.

The second is one-off accidents while doing something the employer required — for example, tripping over a cable powering employer-supplied equipment, being injured lifting a monitor delivered by the employer, or falling on the stairs while carrying work materials. Whether these are covered depends closely on whether the activity was properly a work activity, and whether the risk had been thought about.

The harder side of homeworking claims: causation

The main practical difficulty with homeworking claims is not the law — the duty is clear — but proving that the injury was caused by the work rather than by ordinary domestic life. Home is where people also cook, garden, care for children, walk up and down stairs, and do everything else people do in a house. A defendant will often argue that a back or shoulder problem is really the product of general daily activity, or of a pre-existing condition.

That is why documentation matters. Ask your GP to record the pattern of symptoms as they develop and their connection to your work. If you asked your employer for a proper chair or a second screen and the request was ignored, keep the email. If you were sent equipment, photograph how it arrived and how you were told to use it. If you completed a DSE self-assessment, keep a copy.

Employer's liability insurance covers homeworking employees in exactly the same way as it covers office-based staff — there is no separate rule for homeworkers, and no separate excess. Our overview of employer responsibilities explains this wider framework.

What is not covered

Not every injury that happens at home during the working day is a work injury. Cutting yourself on a knife while making lunch, tripping in your own garden at the weekend, being injured by a domestic pet, or falling in a bathroom is generally domestic and not the employer's responsibility. The question a court asks is whether the activity that caused the injury was work — not just whether the injury happened during working hours.

Claims are harder, too, where the employer offered a suitable arrangement (a proper desk and chair, a DSE assessment, a display screen break policy) and the worker did not use it. That is not automatically fatal to a claim, but it is the kind of point contributory negligence arguments are built on.

Practical steps if you are injured working from home

• Report the injury to your employer that day, in writing.
• Ask for a copy of any homeworking or DSE risk assessment carried out for you.
• Photograph your working setup as it actually was at the time of injury.
• See your GP promptly and describe the work connection clearly.
• Keep every email in which you asked for equipment, adjustments or ergonomic help.