A woman I'll call Diane -- not her real name -- contacted our office last January with a gas shutoff notice. She owed $1,847. She had maybe $200 liquid. She'd been keeping her thermostat at 55 and wearing layers indoors since Thanksgiving. Her pipes had frozen once already. She had never heard of LIHEAP. We filed her application on a Tuesday and by the following Thursday, the program had sent $1,200 directly to her gas company. Not to her. To the gas company. That distinction matters and I'll explain why in a minute.
LIHEAP is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Federal government puts about $4 billion into it annually. That money flows to states, which run their own versions with their own rules, income limits, and benefit levels. Cold states use it mostly for heating. In Arizona and Texas it's cooling assistance in summer that's life-or-death. Some states also fund emergency shutoff prevention and home weatherization through LIHEAP dollars.
Income limits are generally 150% of federal poverty or 60% of state median income, whichever is higher. For a family of four that's roughly $46,800 at the federal floor. But states like Massachusetts set the bar at 60% of median income, which works out to around $67,000 for a family of four. That number surprises people. A lot of working families with two incomes qualify and have no idea.
Benefits range wildly. National average is maybe $500-600 per year. I've seen $200 in milder states and $2,500 in Alaska. The money goes directly to your utility or fuel provider, which is actually good design -- it can't be diverted to something else, and it shows up on your account immediately. Renters qualify too, even if heat is included in rent. In that case the payment goes to you, not your landlord.
This is the part I put in bold when I write handouts for clients: APPLY EARLY. LIHEAP runs out of money. Every year. Some states exhaust their allocation within six to eight weeks of opening the application period, which is usually October or November. If you call in February because you just got a shutoff notice, the money might already be gone. I tell everyone: set a phone reminder for October 1st. Check your state's LIHEAP start date. Apply the first week it opens.
Beyond regular benefits, ask your local agency about crisis assistance -- that's emergency funding for imminent shutoffs, usually processed in 48 hours. And the weatherization component pays for things like insulation, air sealing, and furnace repair or replacement. A homeowner I worked with in rural PA got an entire new furnace through weatherization. Her old one was a 35-year-old oil burner. The new one cut her monthly bill roughly in half. She cried in our office. Not an anecdote I share to be sentimental -- I share it because a lot of people don't realize how much these programs can actually do.
