"In the eyes of the court any payment, no matter how small, goes in favour of the payee as a good faith intention to settle a debt."

[SweetSakura]

A recent twitter reply from Jack Monroe...

Is this correct?

Is in the context of advising people to cancel their electricity direct debits...

I would have thought the court would consider how much effort had been made to lay/percentage of debt repaid/spare income available to the person who owed the money?

But just curious really

It doesn’t really go in your favour if you’re paying 1 pound a month on a debt but your income is say 5k a month, that sort of thing. It’s outdated advice and only usually for non priority debts.

Sounds like Jack Monroe's usual nonsense.

Yes that's what I thought. Surely it's much more complex than that!

Of course it is, but who wants the law to get in the way of a good soundbite, eh?!

I just worry that the most vulnerable people will make their lives worse if they follow this kind of advice.

@SweetSakura

You are right. It will be the vulnerable who listen to this and ultimately end up with bad credit and in debt etc. It will not end well.

People won't have time to worry about what the court will eventually think. The service will be cut off long before that.

@Jalisco

You mean their electric will be cut off?

It feels horribly irresponsible to misrepresent something so serious

I think JM means well. She just doesn’t get the whole plot

They will be out on a pre-pay meter, and so will be cutting themselves off if they choose not to pay for what they want to use.

Telling vulnerable people not to lay is criminal.

Better to contact the energy company, tell them you can't afford the bills and request a repayment plan. That way you keep within the law and the energy companies have records of the number of customers who can't pay their accounts. They could use those records themselves to lobby for government support with wholesale energy prices, if they choose to, and the records are there for FOI requests by third parties who might choose to do the same.
Simply not paying your bills is a stupid and dangerous option that will not force the anticipated change.