Quit dumping on older people, we’re giving back to our communities | Letters

Retirees are helping run food banks, libraries, and charity shops, stepping in where younger generations aren’t, say readers in response to an article by Phillip Inman

Phillip Inman’s got me bang to rights (Can a nation in crisis rely on the baby boomer generation to step up? I think the UK is about to find out, 21 August). Born in 1953, passed the 11-plus, joined the 8% who went to university and spent a lifetime in white-collar jobs that paid well enough for housing and pensions. Not all smooth sailing – four or five redundancies – but each came with a lump sum and a decent job soon after. And I was a basic rate taxpayer for all but a few years.

Now I’ve got assets far beyond my needs, and children who don’t need my money. But Inman misses why many of us hold on to what we have: we’ve seen decades of social care failure and want to ensure that we can afford the eye-watering costs ahead. The housing market doesn’t help – ageing households face an archaic property-exchange system. We tackled it when we had to, but there’s no urgency now. And the idea that the private sector will provide? Not when Guardian columns are full of service-charge horror stories. Why dive into shark-infested waters?