As a baby boomer I am fed up with being blamed for our economic evils. Last month Phillip Inman said that "baby boomers have accumulated much of the nation's wealth and pose a problem for the future", allegedly because we're "unwilling to foot the cost" (The left must defuse the debt timebomb, 6 December). And this week he claims we are making matters worse by selfishly paying off our mortgages instead of spending our retirement funds on consumer goods (Baby boomers aren't evil, just selfish, 3 January).
Let me answer this using my own example. Born in 1948, I certainly benefited from the era of grammar schools, and the absence of university tuition fees. Having bought my first property in the 1970s, and inherited some money from my parents, I am comfortably off. During my career I paid all the taxes and national insurance contributions demanded of me. If successive governments had adequately foreseen the effects of the postwar baby boom, they might have raised those contributions. If they didn't, it is not the fault of those paying taxes at the time. And our economic situation is the banks' fault, not mine.
I have three children whom I have brought up as a working mother, unfortunately single for much of that time. I supported them all through university and tried to minimise their need for student loans. Still working at 62, I am paying into stakeholder pensions for them, and naturally have willed my entire "wealth" to them equally.
However, the current tax regime limits my choices. First, I can only give away £3,000 per year in total without potentially passing on a liability through inheritance tax. Second, were I to give my home to my children, I would have to pay them rent or it would be treated as a gift with "reservation of benefit". Third, if I had done that, how would I fund any care I might need when I am very old? Fourth, when I die, my estate will pay full inheritance tax, since I will be leaving it to my children, not to my second husband. Can you please tell me: how else can I pass money to my children? In what way have I robbed them of their financial futures?
Research I have been working on at King's College London indicates that the flow of money within families is largely from older to younger generations. Our sample included parents who support their unemployed children, even paying grandchildren's school fees.
Many grandparents provide unpaid childcare so that their children can go to work. Others provide housing for their adult children following relationship breakdowns or during illness. This is confirmed by a 2007 study across 10 European countries by Albertini, Kohli and Vogel, who found that "there is a net downward flow from the older to the younger generations, both by … financial transfers and by social support".
Many people who could afford to would give more away to their children and grandchildren if the tax regime allowed it without potential penalty. Until the government makes it easier for us to support our children and grandchildren, can we please hear less – or preferably no more at all – about how we baby boomers have allegedly been feathering our nests at our children's expense?