And so it will keep proving the case. Very soon systems at the DWP will grind to a standstill unless the tech improves, hampering any future pensions minister's attempts to get anything done.
So what will be Opperman’s legacy as minister? He has had grand ambitions and is a bundle of ideas but so far, other than promises on green investments in pensions that were unveiled at Cop26, he has not delivered anything meaningful for savers. It is all just a wish-list so far.
He will probably get more time in the job. But while the Treasury holds the purse strings, it will prove very hard to get anything done as pensions minister.
Equity and inheritance
The problem with equity release is inheritance. I have not seen one equity release complaint in my time doing this job that did not involve a son or daughter distraught that what they thought they were going to inherit was actually far less.
It is largely always a communication problem about what the older relative planned to do with their home.
So is it time to formally put property on the retirement planning list? That is certainly what a report by the Lang Cat suggests. It argues that housing wealth could help combat the cost of living crisis.
And it makes a radical suggestion: scrap the £175,000 main residence IHT allowance. That way people will be more encouraged to use the roof over their heads.
What an interesting idea. It will never happen though, not with a generation of home-owning Tory-voting Brits to look after.
PR problems
Do PRs know when their clients are dodgy? Every week my inbox is bombarded with press releases from PR people touting the comments of tax firms (largely) pushing dubious schemes.
In one case a firm kept sending releases for an adviser that had been banned several times over.
I could not live with myself, but sometimes I think the PRs actually just do not know any better.
James Coney is money editor of the Times and Sunday Times
