We’ve known since May that welfare cuts under the Conservative government would be brutal, but it wasn’t until the weekend that we found out just how bad they're going to be.

It’s now been revealed that £12bn worth of welfare cuts will be included in next month’s budget, with even more rolled out in the autumn spending review.

Such cuts are based on nothing more than the Tory myth that poverty is a choice which people can be scared or starved out of. Osborne’s logic appears to be that if the Tories make life for poor people insufferable, they will simply choose to be well-off. As such, poverty is a lifestyle choice or a moral failing.

By framing the issue in this way, the Conservatives have narrowed the conversation, and hope people won’t be able to see the wider structural inequalities and economic failings, for which they are responsible.

But in reality, the reason why there are teenagers who will leave school this year and sign on for Jobseekers’ Allowance – rather going up to Oxford University like David Cameron and George Osborne – isn't because of choices they made as individuals. They didn't choose to be born into a family who could not send them to Eton or St Pauls, nor did they choose to be born into the most savage economic climate in living memory.

Nor does anyone "choose" to be disabled. Or to belong to a social class, gender or ethnic group which has been economically oppressed for centuries by the establishment.

Nor do unemployed people choose to not be in jobs which simply do not exist.

'Just last week, it emerged that Iain Duncan Smith is refusing to reveal how many people have died after having their benefits stopped' (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Being further deprived of their right to live with basic dignity will not mean that people on welfare will simply decide to become employed or non-disabled. Rather, these welfare cuts will serve to test, punish and degrade them further. Under existing cuts to welfare, there have been reports of welfare claimants, disabled and unemployed, who have died after being sanctioned.

In July of last year, diabetic David Clapson was found dead with just £3.44 in his bank account, without food, electricity or essential medicine in his home after his benefits were stopped.

Just last week, it emerged that Iain Duncan Smith is refusing to reveal how many people have died after having their benefits stopped, despite the Information Commissioner telling him there was no justification for his refusal. Quite why he would seek to block the figures being public is tragically transparent and represents the real cost of welfare cuts.

What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? Show all 8 1 /8 What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? Welfare payments will be slashed One of the most controversial parts of the Conservative manifesto was to cut benefits for the working age poor by £12 bn over the next three years. But during the campaign they only said where £2 bn of these savings would come from. That leaves £10 bn still to find. Some experts think the only way they can close that gap is by means testing child benefit – with millions of families losing out Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? There will be tax cuts for those in work and those who die The Tories will increase the threshold at which the 40p rate of tax becomes payable to £50,000 by 2020. They haven’t said so but it is also likely that at some point in the next five years they will abolish that 45p rate of tax altogether for the highest earners. They also want to increase the effective inheritance tax threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1m Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? There will be an in/out EU referendum in 2017 The next two years are going to be dominated by the prospect of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. First off David Cameron has the daunting task of negotiating a deal with other EU leaders an acceptable deal that he can sell to his party so he can go into the referendum campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote. This may be unachievable and it is possible that the Tories may end up arguing to leave. Opinion polls show Britain is divided on EU membership, one poll this year showed 51% said they would opt to leave compared to 49% who would vote to stay in Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? There will be more privatisation of the NHS Having won the election the Tories now have a mandate to go further and faster reforming the NHS. In order to make cost savings there is likely to be greater private involvement in running services, while some smaller hospitals may lose services they currently provide like A&E and maternity units Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? There will be many more free schools – and traditional state schools will become a thing of the past The Tories plans to create 500 new free schools and make 3,000 state schools become academies. They will also carry on reforming the Department of Education and remove more powers from local authorities over how schools are run Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? On shore wind farms will be a thing of the past and fracking will be the future Government spending on renewable energy is under real threat now the Lib Dems are no longer in power with the Tories. Subsidies are likely to be slashed for off-shore wind farm and other green energy supplies. Meanwhile there will be generous tax break for fracking as ministers try and incentivise the industry to drill for onshore oil and gas Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? There maybe more free childcare – but not necessarily In the campaign the Tories pledged to double the amount of free early education for three- and four-year-olds from 15 hours a week to 30. The extra hours would only be offered to working families where parents are employed for at least eight hours a week. However they have not said where the money will come from to fund the pledge Getty What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain? Workers' rights could be reduced The Tories want to slash business regulation, merge regulator and cut costs. The Lib Dems stopped them from reducing the employment rights of workers in power – but these are now under threat Getty

For many on welfare, already stretched to their limits by current cuts, the only "choice" posed by £12bn welfare cuts is the choice between poverty and death. That’s not a choice which they themselves get to make, but a decision that has just been made by their Tory Government, and something that those on welfare will just have to live, or die, with.

The logic of such brutal welfare cuts reminds me of a trick which farmers used in my village when I was growing up in the Irish countryside. To force a fox out of a fox hole, they set fire to something and drop it down the hole. As the tunnel fills up with fumes and licks of flame, the fox has two "choices": to stay and burn to death, or rush out of the tunnel to the awaiting farmer’s pitchfork.