IL self-insurer comp bonds.
2% of the bond amount.
An Illinois employer that pays workers’ compensation benefits without buying insurance does so on a privilege granted by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, and the Commission takes security for it. A surety bond on Form IC-52 is the usual answer. Premiums cost 2% of the bond amount, $100 minimum. The application includes a credit consent, but it authorises a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score. No hard inquiry ever runs on this bond.
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Apply to filed in one sitting.
The Commission’s side of this takes months; the bond does not. Once you know your security number, the surety is the fastest thing in the file:
Apply online
Your company details, years in business, the security amount the Commission set, and an effective date. Sizeable programmes may draw a short underwriter look at financials.
Pay & e-sign
Most applications approve instantly. Because these bonds run six and seven figures, a larger amount can get a brief review — and if a check runs, it is a soft pull that will not touch your score.
File with the Commission
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email on the Commission’s Form IC-52, ready to file with your self-insurance application or annual renewal.
What it is and who needs it.
What the self-insurer’s bond actually guarantees
Illinois lets an employer skip the insurance policy and pay compensation claims directly — but only with the Commission’s permission, and only against security. The bond form says it plainly: the principal and surety are bound unto the people of the State of Illinois for the use and benefit of all employees of the Principal who may be entitled to compensation under the Workers’ Compensation Act and the Workers’ Occupational Diseases Act. The employee, not the State, is the party this protects.
Approval runs through the Self-Insurers Advisory Board, which reviews an applicant’s financial condition, the nature of its employment, payroll, claim experience and claims-administration programme, and scores three financial ratios — current assets to liabilities, capital and retained earnings to sales, and capital and retained earnings to long-term debt — before recommending to the Commission. Applications go in electronically at least 60 days ahead of the requested effective date. The published minimum security requirement is $200,000; a surety bond, a letter of credit, or an escrow deposit of cash or negotiable government bonds all satisfy it.
The number is not permanent. Each year, on the renewal application that keeps the privilege alive, the security requirement is re-evaluated and adjusted against current payroll and open reserves — which is why self-insurers often ride a bond up or down over time rather than keeping one figure for a decade. An employer that has been self-insured for three consecutive years and scores a perfect 18 on those ratios for three consecutive audited years can be relieved of security altogether. And if a private self-insurer becomes insolvent, the statutory machinery around the Illinois Self-Insurers Security Fund is what reaches the bond. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays, you reimburse the surety.
You need this bond if you are
One application, then a quick review.
Submit the application with the security amount the Commission set. Because these run six and seven figures, larger amounts may draw a short underwriter look at financials.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Illinois bonds.
Keep the self-insurance privilege.
2% of the bond amount, from $100, soft pull only, on the Commission’s Form IC-52. Free until issued.