No decisions have been made on where to make further benefit cuts, should the Conservatives win the general election - Iain Duncan Smith has told the BBC.
The Tories aim to cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017-18.
Documents leaked to the BBC suggested taxing disability benefits was among the options - but the work and pensions secretary said none were party policy.
He said about a quarter of cuts had been announced and it was "not the case" others were being kept secret.
Last week's leaked documents from Mr Duncan Smith's department outlined some options for cutting benefits further, prepared by civil servants at the request of Conservative Party officials.
They included restricting Carer's Allowance, taxing disability benefits, limiting child benefit to the first two children and regional variations in benefit caps.
'Cheese-paring cuts'
Mr Duncan Smith told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show "none of the stuff" that had been reported had been discussed with the chancellor, and it was standard for government departments to put figures together - but that did not mean they were policy.
He said a benefit freeze and pledge to reduce the annual benefits cap from £26,000 to £23,000 would account for about a quarter of savings and were "a good indication that we know where we're going to go to make those savings".
He said he had raised Carers' Allowance and had protected the most disabled throughout all previous benefit changes.
"I know that it is feasible to save £12bn, it is less than 10% of the overall budget
"I didn't come into this job after years looking at this to just make cheese-paring cuts," he said.
"What we've come in to do is to reform the welfare system, so that we don't waste money on organisations and groups and things that don't actually help life change.
"No decisions have been made. As and when decisions are made of course we will be very open to the public."
He added: "I know that it is feasible to save £12bn, it is less than 10% of the overall budget... There will be loads and loads of things that people are looking at, because that's what departments do."
'Stale' prime ministers
Mr Duncan Smith said changes made so far had improved people's lives - contrary to predictions that they would result in much homelessness and people having to move hundreds of miles away.
Asked about Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement last week that he would not seek a third term if he won a second term in May's election, Mr Duncan Smith said he was "sure" there would have to be a leadership contest before the next election to allow the Conservatives to choose a new leader.
Mr Cameron would "serve what essentially is a full term" - but "of course there will be a competition at some point".
He said Mr Cameron was doing something no prime minister had done before - which was to say "there is an amount of time a prime minister should serve before they get stale".
Asked whether there could be a leadership election as early as 2018, to introduce a new leader to the electorate, he said the likely contenders would have been "up in the public sphere for some time" - so would not be unknown to voters.
The government has cut around £20bn from projected welfare spending over the course of the past five years, through a range of measures from freezing payment rates to cutting housing benefit.
The Conservatives have said they would freeze the rate at which benefits are paid to people of working age and lower the benefits cap - the amount a household can claim in a year - to £23,000, if they win the general election.
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests those measures would save no more than about £2bn a year by 2017-18.
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