Currently we are forced to ignore it until it becomes a performance problem or a new feature touches the same code. This is simply because new features are paid for by clients and they take priority over technical debt.

We only tend to refactor code (as a rule) when you are already working inside that code section on something new (feature, improvement or bug).

Otherwise junior developers have a tendency to want to refactor all the things!

If you wrote a new unit test, or altered an existing one to accommodate new code, then knock yourself out and refactor away and knock yourself out!