Unmet need, epistemic injustice and early death: how social policy for Autistic adults in England and Wales fails to slay Beveridge’s Five Giants

Around 2% of people are Autistic, but to date the impact of being Autistic on social policy receipt has not yet been considered. We, a group of Autistic academics, consider epistemic injustice, where Autistic input is excluded from the policy making process, to be a core part of Autistic disablement. We consider the impact of this using a modern iteration of Beveridge’s Five Giants: health (disease), education (ignorance), employment (idleness), poverty (want), and housing (squalor). Starting with lack of access to diagnosis and healthcare for co-occurring conditions, we identify policies that fail to account for known Autistic needs in each policy area. These failures have a cumulative impact throughout the life course; lack of accommodations within education leads to less likelihood of securing accessible employment, and greater reliance on government financial support and housing assistance. Furthermore, this impact will be increased for Autistic people who are multiply marginalised due to intersectionality. We propose changes to the policy-making process to ensure that it reflects Autistic needs and realities, allowing for the emancipation of Autistic people. We theorise that if this were to happen, the Autistic suicide rate, which is nine times that of non-Autistic people, would decline.