Rishi Sunak has said it would be “silly” for the government to give people more help with the energy bills right now.
The chancellor said it was better to wait six months until the autumn, when the new energy price cap is set, to see whether costs were still soaring.
However, he insisted he was ready to come up with more support then if it was required.
Sunak made his comments during a 25-minute interview on Mumsnet.
He was asked by a disabled person whether the government would offer more support to cover energy bills.
“So I’d say we’ll see where we are with that if we need to do more.”
Boris Johnson has called on his ministers to come up with ideas on how to bring down the cost of living.
However, Sunak has insisted that any new measures should not cost the Treasury any more money as he seeks to tackle the mounting public debt.
The PM chaired a meeting of the cabinet yesterday at which he impressed upon them the need to help people keep more of their money.
But his spokesman said: “He underlined the importance of not feeding in to further inflation rises and emphasised that the UK is currently spending £80 billion servicing our debt.”
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has proposed that car MOTs take place every two years rather than annually, while the government is also keen on reforming health and safety rules to bring down childcare costs.
However, a plan to slash tariffs on things like imported grain in order to reduce food prices has led to a cabinet split.
