Controversial commentator Katie Hopkins, who once said poor people in debt have no one else to blame but themselves, has applied for an insolvency agreement in a bid to avoid bankruptcy following a costly libel case involving the food writer Jack Monroe. 
 
 Last year, the rightwing broadcaster was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages and legal costs after she sent tweets in 2015 which falsely implied Monroe backed the defacement of war memorials by protesters. 
 
 Monroe originally asked for Hopkins to apologise and donate £5,000 to a migrants’ charity or she would sue. But Hopkins – who had confused Monroe with the columnist Laurie Penny – refused to back down, resulting in a costly court case, with the commentator forced to pay £24,000 in damages and a substantially larger sum in legal costs. 
 
 Meanwhile, her mainstream media career collapsed. She parted ways with Mail Online, for whom she had written a regular column, in late 2017, only a few months after losing her LBC radio show when she called for a “final solution” in response to the Manchester Arena terrorist attack. She now works for the far-right Canadian outlet Rebel Media. 
 
 Hopkins, who has already had to sell her Devon home, applied for an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) in May, a filing on the Individual Insolvency Register shows. Monroe told the Guardian that the agreement, which will allow Hopkins to avoid bankruptcy and manage the long-term repayment of her debts, was recently formally agreed following discussion with creditors. 
 
 Q&A What is an IVA? Show Hide An individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) is a formal and legally binding agreement with creditors to pay back debts, often over five or six years. More than 75% of the individual's creditors must agree to the IVA, which is then supervised by a licensed insolvency practitioner. According to Citizens Advice, practitioners typically charge fees of around £5,000 . Agreed monthly repayments are paid to the insolvency practitioner, who will deal with the creditors for the lifetime of the IVA. If the payments into the IVA are not enough to repay the debts in full, the rest will be written off. Last year there were 59,220 new IVAs in England and Wales. An IVA is a form of insolvency. It differs from bankruptcy, where assets are transferred to a trustee, who then sells them and distributes the proceeds to creditors. When the bankruptcy order is over you can make a fresh start, usually after a year. Those who declare bankruptcy are allowed to keep certain things, like household goods and a reasonable amount to live on. 
 
 Hopkins, whose tweets suggested she is on a trip to Poland, did not immediately return a request for comment. 
 
 “It’s really quite sad – two tweets cost her her house, job, and now her credit rating,” said Monroe, reflecting on the case, which has taken more than three years in total. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The food writer Jack Monroe. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian 
 
 “I’m supposed to be jubilant and celebratory but I feel quite mixed up. Having been close to the edge of bankruptcy myself, it’s a hideous situation to be in, but it was completely avoidable. Things are in place in that agreement to make sure her children are looked after. I’m a mother myself and I read it line by line to make sure that her children didn’t suffer as a result of what she’s done.” 
 
 Hopkins shot to fame as a contestant on The Apprentice in 2007, later billing herself as “Britain’s most controversial columnist” and appearing on the US TV network Fox News, during which time then-presidential candidate Donald Trump called her a “respected columnist” for her writing on “the UK’s Muslim problems”. 
 
 I took Katie Hopkins to court – but I won’t celebrate her leaving Mail Online | Jack Monroe Read more 
 
 Earlier this year, she successfully won a complaint against the Daily Mirror after its website gave the impression that she was prevented from leaving South Africa for taking ketamine. She said the claim could be damaging to her reputation as, in reality, her passport had been briefly confiscated over allegations she had been spreading racial hatred, rather than for using medically-prescribed drugs. 
 
 After Monroe revealed the existence of the IVA, social media users drew attention to a tweet Hopkins published in 2014 suggesting that people in debt typically blamed others for their predicament. 
 
 Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) The only thing people in debt have in common other than bad money management, is an ability to blame anyone but themselves. #debtdebate 
 
 Monroe warned that Hopkins could be turned into a martyr and pushed further to the extremes by the verdict. “She could have had a glittering career ahead of her,” she said. 
 
 “I hope this is an opportunity to regroup and reconsider how best to provide for her family without ending up in court or being pushed further to the margins. I don’t know if it’s a fire that’s burning out or a fire that we’re pouring petrol on. 
 
 “My offer of a cup of tea still stands if she wants to talk about it. I don’t believe that anyone’s so far beyond redemption. Lots of people are celebrating but I’m not. 
 
 “I have to talk about it because if I don’t people will speculate on what I think. It’s a sad, lonely sort of anticlimax. It’s really crap and I feel really bad it’s all ended up like this. I thought she’d just say sorry.” 

 CONTROVERSIAL television star Katie Hopkins has made headlines for her outspoken views. 
 
 However, the former Apprentice and CCB contestant lost a libel action against another columnist which has landed her in financial hot water. 
 
 Getty 3 Former CBB star Hopkins has entered an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, legal papers show 
 
 Who is Katie Hopkins? 
 
 Born in Devon in 1975, Hopkins studied economics at the University of Exeter. 
 
 She attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where her training was hindered as a result of her epilepsy. 
 
 Hopkins eventually moved to New York to work for a business consultancy before returning to the UK in 2005. 
 
 She joined the Met Office, Britain's national weather service, the following year as a global brand consultant. 
 
 The mum-of-three reached the final of BBC’s The Apprentice in 2006 but pulled out of the contest over problems with her daughters' childcare. 
 
 Hopkins lost her job at the Met Office in 2007 – a dismissal which she partly blamed on her appearances on television. 
 
 She later carved out a career as a controversial TV personality and columnist and appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015 alongside Katie Price. 
 
 Hopkins now works as contributor for The Rebel Media, a Canadian far-right online political website, alongside former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, hosting Hopkins World. 
 
 She has been married twice and has three children. 
 
 PA:Press Association 3 TV controversialist Katie Hopkins has entered an agreement with creditors to avoid bankruptcy 
 
 What was her libel case about? 
 
 Food blogger Jack Monroe, 29, sued after Hopkins wrongly accused her on Twitter of supporting vandals who had daubed “F*** Tory scum” on a Whitehall war memorial in 2015. 
 
 The motormouth TV star wrote: “@MsJackMonroe scrawled on any memorials recently? 
 
 “Vandalised the memory of those who fought for your freedom. 
 
 “Grandma got any more medals.” 
 
 Monroe quickly demanded Hopkins delete the tweet and apologise. 
 
 Hopkins did delete it two hours later, but posted a second tweet calling the chef “social anthrax”. 
 
 In March 2017 High Court judge Mr Justice Warby said the tweets caused Monroe "serious harm" and awarded her £24,000 damages. 
 
 Hopkins was also ordered to pay £107,000 of Monroe's legal costs. 
 
 Is she insolvent? 
 
 Hopkins has launched a legal bid to avoid bankruptcy after losing the £130,000 libel case, it was revealed in September 2018. 
 
 The former Apprentice star has entered an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), according to papers filed with the Insolvency Service. 
 
 An IVA is an arrangement made with creditors to pay off your debts over a set period of time, usually five to six years. 
 
 Blogger Monroe revealed on Twitter today that Hopkins had filed the IVA but said she was not “celebrating” the columnist's financial troubles. 
 
 Monroe told followers: “I can confirm today that following that landmark libel case, Katie Hopkins has entered into an IVA to avoid bankruptcy. 
 
 “I knew for a while but could not say anything for legal reasons. 
 
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 “The arbitrary defender of free speech didn't want anyone to know, ironically... 
 
 “I have been paid in full, but many of her creditors, including my lawyer, will not be paid what they are owed. 
 
 “For the want of an apology, a house, a job, a column, a radio show, and now financial solvency, were lost. It's all very sad, actually. 
 
 “I'm not cruel nor celebrating - that case cost me 18 months of sanity and work, and I think neither of us wanted it to turn out this way.” 
 
 Katie Hopkins calls Britain 'divided' and a 'nation of ghettos' after London terror attack on Westminster 
 
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– A firebrand commentator in the UK is now fighting off bankruptcy thanks largely to some errant tweets. Back in 2015, Katie Hopkins went on a Twitter rant against a female food writer named Jack Monroe, accusing Monroe of supporting the defacement of war memorials by protesters. The tweets were brutal, but there was one big problem: Hopkins had confused Monroe with another woman, explains the Guardian. Monroe insisted that Hopkins apologize and donate money to a migrants' charity, but Hopkins refused and instead called Monroe "social anthrax," per the Sun. Monroe sued for libel and won, and Hopkins is now on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and legal costs. She just took the first legal steps in a bid to avoid bankruptcy. “I’m supposed to be jubilant and celebratory but I feel quite mixed up," says Monroe. "Having been close to the edge of bankruptcy myself, it’s a hideous situation to be in, but it was completely avoidable." Hopkins, who now works for the far-right site Rebel Media, has not commented. She has previously billed herself as "Britain’s most controversial columnist” for her right-wing views, and she once drew the praise of President Trump for her columns on "the UK's Muslim problems." Buzz.ie reports that another of Hopkins' tweets is now drawing attention given the new money trouble. "The only thing people in debt have in common other than bad money management, is an ability to blame anyone but themselves," she wrote in 2014.