Jack Monroe #316 Bizarrely, Jack seems to have misread the research

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Aww, she's very nostalgic for the Before Times lately. The good old days when the only things she had to worry about were her obsessive stalker, her severe eating disorder, her ongoing trauma from CSA...or are we back in the parallel universe where Jack had a lovely happy life right up until the day she quit the fire service and was plunged overnight into a Dickensian nightmare?
 
Regarding the CCJ’s. I would have thought most lenders wouldn’t go to the extend of this if you were even attempting to pay back your debts. It really is a last resort when someone just doesn’t pay up. And if she can buy a £100 hat then she can pay her bills
The only time I've seen CCJs from credit cards/loans/bank debts or phone/internet bills etc is:

1. (By far the most common) the customer has gone ghost, not answering calls/letters, usually not been in contact for at least 6 months and the account has been behind for 6 months. Unfortunately when people are in serious debt they often stop checking their post, which is a completely understandable human response, but ignoring the problem long term is one of the worst things you can do. If you are putting it off then honestly, the earlier you can deal with debt the better. Just being in contact, trying to make arrangements, and paying even a token amount regularly can make a huge difference.

2. The customer has done a budget with a debt charity/the creditor but the budget is insanely unrealistic. E.g they're offering the creditor £1 a month but spending £200 a month on sideboards and are putting £400 a month into savings for an orangery.

CCJ budgets are very strict on what they consider "non essential" spending (this might have changed but in the past they even used to put cigarettes as an 'entertainment' expense) and will probably force the debtor to pay more so at this point the creditor might just think "yeah it'll cost money initially to get the ccj, but it'll be worth it to get a much better arrangement."

Most of the time this doesn't happen though - either because if their initial offer is rejected then most people take another look at their expenses and submit a new offer - or because the debtors just start paying the rejected arrangement amount to the creditor anyway and the creditor never bothers to carry out their threat. Getting money each month without having to chase a debtor is cheaper and less hassle than applying for a CCJ.

The below info may be out of date and I will have forgotten a lot, so please don't take as debt advice but this is how the process used to go ~3-7 years ago:

Your account has been behind for several consecutive months and has defaulted.

You get a "final warning" letter from creditor advising they're considering court action, with a budget attached to send back to your creditor and hopefully set up an arrangement.(this part may vary depending on who you owe money to and what the debt is)

If you don't reply/can't agree on an arrangement amount & the creditor does go for a CCJ then you'll receive a blue "claim form" through the post and there should be a budget form in there as well for you to complete and post back with an offer of payment.

If you're dealing with a debt charity/CAB give them a ring for advice, and get a budget finished asap if you don't already have one because then you can also put that budget in with the form & budget form when you return them, to show that you're getting debt advice. And the budget will probably be more in depth than the court budget form.

If you can't do a budget over phone/in person for whatever reason then use a charity's online budget tool - there is a chance you'll forget some expenses though, so get your bank statements if possible to look through and check you haven't missed anything.

If your existing budget is sensible, add a copy in with your court forms, including existing arrangements with other creditors (just because this debt has gone 'to court' does not make e.g a ccj credit card debt more important than your council tax arrears or your requirement to eat food to survive, and the judge will recognise this) and make your offer on the claim form - the same as the offer from your budget.

If your budget has some areas where the charity/CAB/debt company have said to you like 'yeah ok this area of your budget is higher spending than we'd expect' (some online budget builders may have this functionality but I couldn't say) then this really is the time where you need to cut back if it's possible in those areas, even though its not an easy or pleasant decision.

You should get a response advising of the amount the court has decided you should pay each month based on the information you've provided.

If you don't reply to the N1 form there's a very real chance you'll be told to pay the amount in full and that's when you get bailiffs etc.

If you didn't get an arrangement set up/you've missed payments/ your circumstances have changed and you need to set a new one then you can get an N245 form online from gov UK website - tick both suspension of the warrant (stop the bailiffs) and reduction in instalments. Send that completed form & a copy of your budget to the court responsible for the CCJ

If you're on a low income and want to waive the fee for this form then there's another form you also need to include, otherwise include a cheque for the fee. Hopefully you'll hear back to confirm new offer will be accepted.

If you haven't heard back yet then tbh I'd start the monthly payments at the new amount you've agreed anyway, it's better than finding out your offer was accepted but you didn't get the letter confirming it and now the arrangement is broken again.

Anyway the point is there is usually a LOT that happens before a debt gets to CCJ, I think Jack either is ignoring her post, or she's moved and forgotten to update her address. With the amount being so 'low' (compared to her purchases) I'd imagine she will settle in full and try and get her credit report showing it as "satisfied" ASAP but still, it's gonna be on there for 6 years now.
 
Please will someone tweet her about the existence of Paulmate Johnson. 🤞

ego criticism.png
 
Those blog archives are something else too. She comes off as a very locally wannabe prominent figure, bit of a Karen, middle class Daily Mail reader type person. Nothing wrong at all with that kind of person, and I think it's probably who she genuinely is. But it's very different from the edgy, WC left wing genderfluid maverick persona she later cultivated.
Her dad then, in other words?
 
Author Frau here: these are not final edits. These are just edits, or even rewrites.
Final edits are what your editor asks you to do with an editorial letter. You do them, possibly one round after too (or more if you aren’t a sharp drafter) and then it’s copyediting (might be some small rewriting again as this is a third set of eyes) then it’s proofreading which someone else will correct then it’s page layout time.
This whole performance makes me wonder about her diagnoses too. There’s no perfectionism here that I might expect with an autism diagnosis or the ability to spot mistakes. I’m trying to come to terms with a likely looking ADHD diagnosis myself, but it’s also made me realise the fact I wrote an almost immediately publishable book that only needed additional chapters at edits stage (which I also wrote first time, no extra editing needed) in FIVE MONTHS was because ADHD means I have something called hyperfocus in something I care about and get obsessed with. Jacks either not able to do this (no ADHD), or she’s swung the other way and gone full executive dysfunction because she does not care about this book and so cannot summon the concentration she needs (does have ADHD) Though if her paltry output requires 120 hours a week then she definitely doesn’t have ADHD, because if I could focus for that long, I would be getting tit done. Except I can’t. Because, you know, ADHD.

Sorry this is punctuated with a bit of merailing, but I think it makes sense?? Argh.

Just to clear something up, many ADHD sufferers can’t hyperfocus on productive things, and can’t choose what they focus on. For many, hyperfocus might mean pacing in a circle for hours, or picking their skin for hours on end.

I have ADHD and am fully unable to hyperfocus at will, it only “happens” when I don’t want it, and never, ever on anything useful. It is pathological for me, not a benefit.

Edit to add, also many people with autism are not actually good at spotting mistakes and not perfectionists, especially if they have ADHD as well. I’m against strength stereotyping because it’s devastating for those with a disability to be expected by the world to have particular strengths when they often don’t.
 
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