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

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Grant, A., Williams, G., Williams, K., & Woods, R. (2023). Unmet need, epistemic injustice and early death: how social policy for Autistic adults in England and Wales fails to slay Beveridge’s Five Giants. In Social Policy Review 35 (pp. 239-257). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447369219.ch012

Publication date: 30 Jun 2023 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Book chapter Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
4 / 4 (100.0%)
  1. Aimee Grant *
  2. Gemma Williams *
  3. Kathryn Williams *
  4. Richard Woods *

Abstract

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.

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These indicators describe the cited bibliography imported for this publication. Cited-reference metrics use the cited-reference total as denominator. Cited-author metrics state whether they use all cited-author occurrences or only occurrences linked to authors already integrated in the AutiHub database. They use cached links between cited authors and authors integrated in the AutiHub database. Last computed: 16 Aug 2026 11:30.

Cited references
29
Total cited references integrated for this publication.
Cited references with an identified autistic author
5 / 29 (17.2%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
8 / 73 (11.0%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 8 / 30 (26.7%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 7 / 71 (9.9%).
Cited author occurrences linked to AutiHub author records
30 / 73 (41.1%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 28 / 71 (39.4%)
Linked cited-author occurrences not identified as autistic
22 / 30 (73.3%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 22 / 73 (30.1%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 21 / 28 (75.0%).
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