TODAY I am launching a new year appeal on behalf of a persecuted minority – Baby Boomer pensioners.

Ok, we’re not really a persecuted minority, it just feels like it.

We seem to be taking the blame for just about everything.

(At this point, I will confess to being a baby boomer although I’m not quite a full-blown pensioner yet.)

Apparently, because we were prudent with our money, paid off our mortgages despite usurious interest rates and contributed a significant proportion of our salary into pensions, we are to blame for the financial crisis that is going to leave Generation X and the Millennials (also known as Generation Y apparently) out on the street.

Just try Googling baby boomer pensioners and see what you get.

Millennials and Gen X will never match baby boomer pensions – FTAdvisor.com Pension jackpot for many baby boomers – BBC News How Generation Y is paying the price for baby boomer pensions – The Guardian Baby boomers receive huge pension windfall but retirement inequality widens, official figures reveal – The Independent Let’s just have a look at that story from The Independent: “Older people have received a huge financial boost over the past 40 years as the value of private and workplace pensions has soared,” it says.

“Overall, incomes have grown significantly faster for retired people than for those in work, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm.

“Much of the windfall for baby boomers has come from final salary pension schemes which have now closed to younger generations.

“Adam Corlett, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: ‘Today’s stats show again that the economy has delivered very different results for retired and working households in the last decade’.”

So there you have it. It’s all the fault of us baby boomers. Perhaps what we should have done is frittered away our cash on booze, exotic holidays and fast cars instead of being a bit more prudent with our money.

But there is a champion riding to the rescue in the shape of Kate Palmer writing in the The Telegraph.

According to Ms Palmer, there are four significant myths.

Myth 1: ‘Young people are paying for boomers’ overgenerous pensions’ Millions of baby boomers have no pension savings at all.

Apparently 28 per cent of those aged 55 to 64, or roughly two million people, have no private pension wealth at all.

Myth 2: ‘Boomers bought cheap housing and now sit on a fortune.’ Not all baby boomers are home owners – and those that are would have paid eye-watering mortgage interest rates.

Although half of 55 to 64 year-olds own a property mortgage free, a quarter are renters.

And the dizzying heights of 25 per cent inflation in the mid-1970s, and 10 per cent in the 1980s, mean property ownership came at a high price.

Myth 3: ‘Pensioners have money to burn on cruise.’ People in their 50s and 60s are actually less likely to go on holidays than the national average.

Using data from market researchers, BDRC Continental, The Telegraph reveals 26 per cent of 25 to 34 year-olds are planning a cruise, and just 23 per cent of 55 to 64 year-olds.

Myth 4: ‘Boomers got a free university education.’ Students in the 1960s and 1970s didn’t pay tuition fees while undergraduates today pay a £9,000 a year to fund their studies.

However, access to university was far more difficult for us baby boomers.

Only one-fifth of 55 to 64-year-olds have a degree and this figure drops among people in their late 60s, among whom just 13 per cent have a university education.

So stop guilt-tripping the baby boomers. You can’t blame us for being prudent. Every generation has its challenges. We had ours, now you’ve got yours.

On a more pleasant note, I’d like to wish all our readers a happy and peaceful New Year.