Help paying the electric bill (LIHEAP): what the rules say when someone in the household isn’t eligible

A household where people without immigration status live is not disqualified. Federal guidance from the Office of Community Services (OCS) requires states to prorate the help among the eligible people living there, and allows them to pay the full arrearage on the bill to prevent or reverse a shut-off, even when ineligible people live in the home. What does change is the arithmetic: the income of every household member is documented and counted, and ineligible members are excluded from the household count. (ACF/OCS, LIHEAP IM 2023-03; verified 2026-08-11.)

This page is about a bill that already exists and a shut-off that may be coming. If what you need is to open the electric account in your name, that is a different question, with a different agency and different rules: setting up electric service without an SSN.

What people sayWhat the federal source says
If someone in the house has no papers, don’t applyOCS: the goal is to “ensure that those who are eligible … are not denied services based solely on living with ineligible household members”
An ITIN qualifies youThe word ITIN does not appear in federal LIHEAP guidance; the law uses the “qualified alien” category at 8 U.S.C. §1641(b)
There is a yearly cap on the helpNo federal law or guidance sets an amount. Benefit levels are set by each state
The income limit is one national number150% of the federal poverty level or 60% of state median income, whichever is greater, with a 110% floor

What LIHEAP is, in the law’s own terms

LIHEAP is federal money that each state, territory or tribe administers its own way. ACF describes it this way: “LIHEAP provides federally funded assistance to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and minor energy-related home repairs” (program page, “Current as of: August 5, 2026”).

The statute (42 U.S.C. §8624(b)(1)) gives it four uses: helping low-income households with home energy costs, intervening in energy crisis situations, low-cost residential weatherization and other energy-related home repair, and administering the program.

Who is eligible — and why this turns on a list, not on a document

LIHEAP is a PRWORA federal public benefit, and has been since 1998: it is item (13) on the list HHS published that year. When HHS rewrote that list on July 14, 2025 (90 FR 31232) it did not add LIHEAP, because LIHEAP was already on it — the programs added in 2025 are other ones. Which means: the 2025 change did not alter LIHEAP eligibility.

ACF states the consequence plainly in LIHEAP IM 2023-03:

“PRWORA distinguishes between qualified and not qualified non-citizens. Non-citizens who are not qualified are ineligible for defined federal public benefits, including LIHEAP. Qualified non-citizens are eligible to receive assistance and services under LIHEAP if they meet other program requirements. Qualified non-citizens include persons granted permanent residence (green cards), refugees, asylees, persons paroled into the United States for at least a year or more, and certain other categories of non-citizens as specified in section 431 of PRWORA, 8 U.S.C. 1641(b).”

So the question is not which ID you carry, but which category each person in the house falls into. And that is why the rest of this page is about what happens when one house holds people from both classes.

Income: two routes, and a floor no state may go below

The statute (42 U.S.C. §8624(b)(2)) allows payments to two kinds of household:

  • Categorically: households where someone already receives TANF, SSI, SNAP benefits, or certain Title 38 (veterans) payments. That fact alone meets the income test.
  • By income: households whose income does not exceed the greater of 150% of the state poverty level or 60% of state median income. And a state may not exclude a household solely on income if that income is below 110% of the poverty level.

The law also forbids treating the categorical group as second-class: a state “may not differentiate” between the two groups when it sets levels of assistance (§8624(b)(5)). If your household already receives SNAP, that is the categorical route.

Mixed-status household: the rule almost nobody publishes

This is the core of the page, and it is OCS’s official policy text, not an interpretation:

“When providing LIHEAP benefits such as energy bill reductions which can reasonably be prorated, LIHEAP grant recipients must prorate such benefits when they are being provided to eligible individuals residing in a household with ineligible members, based on the number of eligible household members. The income of all household members—regardless of eligibility—must be documented, verified, and included in the calculation of the LIHEAP benefit amount. However, ineligible household members must be excluded from the total household count when determining the benefit.”

Three things, in order:

  1. Prorating is mandatory, not optional — the word is must.
  2. Everyone’s income counts. That follows from how the LIHEAP Act defines a household (42 U.S.C. §8622(5)) — an economic unit: “any individual or group of individuals who are living together as one economic unit for whom residential energy is customarily purchased in common or who make undesignated payments for energy in the form of rent.” ACF adds: “Unless individual members of the household can demonstrate that they purchase energy independently, e.g., by signing individual leases, there is no authority to exclude their income.”
  3. Ineligible people come out of the count, not out of the household.

The arrearage can be paid in full

“Additionally, LIHEAP grant recipients may pay the full amount of an arrearage to reconnect services or prevent the disconnection of home energy services for an eligible household member … even if the eligible member resides with one or more ineligible household members.”

OCS’s stated reason is purely practical: “it is impossible to reconnect heating or cooling services for only certain household members” and “it is not possible to replace half of a heating unit or install part of an air-conditioning unit.” So the things that cannot be divided — reconnection, equipment repair or replacement, weatherization — are not prorated either.

Who files the application

HHS published separate guidance on Social Security numbers and citizenship-status verification whose stated purpose is to make sure state policies “do not discourage, delay or deny enrollment of eligible persons, including eligible children residing with ineligible non-citizens.” From it:

  • “The ‘applicant’ does not need to be an eligible member of the household, but should be of legal age to apply on behalf of those members of the household who are eligible.”
  • “Q5: May an adult apply and provide supporting eligibility information on behalf of other household members? A5: Yes.”
  • And a reminder aimed at the states: “Grantees must treat all similarly situated individuals in the same manner, and must not single out individuals based upon assumptions or stereotypes related to physical appearance, mannerisms, or any other characteristic presumed to be associated with immigrants.”

The shut-off: the clocks federal law does fix

Crisis assistance is a distinct thing from ordinary bill help, and it is the only part of the program with federal deadlines (42 U.S.C. §8623(c)):

  • 48 hours from the application to provide “some form of assistance that will resolve the energy crisis” to an eligible household.
  • 18 hours if the household is in a life-threatening situation.
  • Each state reserves crisis funds until March 15 of each program year.
  • Whoever administers the program must accept applications “at sites that are geographically accessible to all households in the area” and give physically infirm people a way to apply without leaving their residence or to travel to the sites where applications are accepted.

On verification during a crisis, ACF says a state “might decide to implement ‘a quick and simple verification procedure’ when providing crisis assistance as opposed to other types of LIHEAP assistance.” That is a possibility ACF describes, not a requirement.

A LIHEAP benefit is not income — but one thing did change in 2025

The statute is categorical (42 U.S.C. §8624(f)(1)): the payment “shall not be considered income or resources of such household (or any member thereof) for any purpose under any Federal or State law, including any law relating to taxation, supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits, public assistance, or welfare programs.”

There is one place where two federal sources do not read the same, and that has to be said out loud: the text of §8624(f)(2)(A) still carries the older cross-reference under which a LIHEAP payment above the annual threshold that section sets causes heating costs to be deemed for the SNAP shelter deduction. FNS’s memo of August 29, 2025 on section 10103 of P.L. 119-21 says that changed: for LIHEAP receipt to automatically confer the standard heating and cooling utility allowance (HCSUA), the household must contain a member aged 60 or older or a member with a disability. Other households “still qualify for the HCSUA, if the household incurs heating or cooling expenses.” FNS’s memo is the instruction states are operating under, and they apply it at SNAP recertification.

Two programs, two lists, the same house

Worth saying because it confuses many people: LIHEAP still uses PRWORA’s “qualified alien” definition, which includes refugees and asylees. SNAP stopped using that list on July 4, 2025, when section 10108 of P.L. 119-21 limited SNAP to US citizens, US nationals, lawful permanent residents, Cuban and Haitian entrants, and COFA citizens. These are two separate sources, each speaking only about its own program: losing one does not mean losing the other.

Public charge

Under the 2022 rule that is still in force today, energy assistance is not one of the benefits that count, and benefits received by other household members do not count against an applicant. But that rule is rescinded effective September 18, 2026: through September 17, 2026 the 2022 rule governs, benefits received before that date continue to be evaluated under it, and from September 18, 2026 officers will weigh all relevant facts case by case. The full treatment, with the dates and the rule text, is on the public charge page; the specific question of a citizen child’s benefits is on SNAP and US-citizen children. ACF says nothing about immigration consequences of applying for LIHEAP; that answer comes from USCIS sources, not from the energy agency.

Watch for fraud

ACF publishes this warning on its own program page:

“Notice: The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) does not provide direct grants to individuals; LIHEAP does not charge a fee for receiving a benefit. If you receive a message offering you a LIHEAP grant or requesting a fee, please contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Fraud Hotline at 1-800-447-8477.”

What the federal sources do NOT say

This matters as much as the rest, because it is where invented facts get in:

  • There is no federal benefit amount, average, or cap. Neither the statute (42 U.S.C. §8621–8624), nor the program page, nor the Clearinghouse states what a household can expect. Benefit levels are set by each grantee. Any “per year” figure presented as a national number has no federal source.
  • There is no national application season. The one date the statute fixes is March 15, for reserving crisis funds. When a state opens, when it closes, whether it reopens, and whether it runs first-come-first-served are state decisions and are not published federally.
  • Federal LIHEAP guidance does not mention the ITIN. It addresses Social Security numbers and qualified-alien status. Do not infer from that silence that an ITIN substitutes for status.
  • ACF does not say which specific documents a household must bring. It points to attachments 4 and 5 of the Department of Justice interim guidance (62 FR 61344, 1997) and leaves the procedure to each state. [UNVERIFIED: whether DOJ ever finalized the PRWORA verification rule — not checked; the operative citation on both ACF pages remains the 1997 interim guidance.]
  • No federal document states any particular state’s income limit. Only the 150% / 60% / 110%-floor frame exists. That is why this is one national page and not fifty-one.

Where to apply

  • Official finder: liheapch.acf.gov/search-tool — the federal Clearinghouse describes itself as “the official federal hub for information on how LIHEAP operates across states, tribes, and territories.” There is a Spanish-language version of the same tool.
  • State and territory office directory: ACF’s contact listing covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. ACF publishes tribal grant-recipient contacts separately.
  • NEAR hotline (National Energy Assistance Referral), 1-866-674-6327. Both sources have to be quoted here because they do not agree: the ACF program page says “on weekdays 9:00 am to 7:00 pm (Eastern Time)”, while the Clearinghouse search tool says “Weekdays from 10:00am - 6:00pm (ET)”. The number is identical on both. The Clearinghouse also lists an email, energyassistance@ncat.org, asking for your city, county and state.

Last verified: 2026-08-11. General information, not legal advice. If you have an open immigration case, or you were denied and want to appeal, consult a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ/BIA-accredited representative.