Help Paying Your Electric & Heating Bills: LIHEAP Guide 2026

LIHEAP — the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program — helps low-income households pay home energy bills (electric, heating, and cooling), handle energy emergencies, and make homes more energy efficient. This guide explains the 2026 income rules, what LIHEAP covers, and how to apply in your state.

What Is LIHEAP?

LIHEAP is a federal program run by the Office of Community Services at HHS. The federal government sends the money to states, tribes, and territories, and they run their own local programs. That means the exact income limit, benefit amount, and application season all depend on where you live.

One important fact up front: the federal government does not give LIHEAP grants directly to individuals, and LIHEAP never charges a fee, per HHS. Anyone who contacts you promising a “federal LIHEAP grant” or asking for a processing fee is running a scam (more on that below).

What LIHEAP Can Pay For

According to HHS, LIHEAP funds can help with:

• Home energy bills — heating in winter, cooling in summer
• Energy crises — for example, preventing a shutoff or getting service reconnected
• Weatherization — improvements that make your home use less energy
• Minor energy-related home repairs

Each state chooses how to split its funds among these services, so not every state offers every type of help all year.

LIHEAP Income Limits 2026: Who Qualifies

Federal law sets a band, and your state picks its limit inside that band. Under the statute, explained in LIHEAP IM-2026-01:

• A state’s income ceiling is the greater of 150% of the federal poverty guidelines (FPG) or 60% of the state’s median income.
• States may not set their limit below 110% of the poverty guidelines.

What does that mean in practice? In states where 60% of the median income is higher than 150% of the poverty guidelines — often the case in higher-cost states — the state can use that higher number, so more households fit under the limit. Federal guidance (LIHEAP IM-2026-01, published April 24, 2026) also tells states which year’s poverty guidelines to use: the 2026 guidelines are optional for FY 2026 and required starting FY 2027.

So the real answer to “do I qualify?” always ends with: check your state’s limit. But there is a second trap in that sentence, and it catches people who do the arithmetic correctly.

The poverty table changes on October 1, 2026 — and until then it was the 2025 one. 45 CFR 96.85 gives a state until October 1, “or by the beginning of the State fiscal year, whichever is later,” to adopt new guidelines, and ACF’s own LIHEAP Clearinghouse says “the majority of grant recipients use the prior year guidelines until the first day of the next fiscal year in order to avoid changing guidelines in the middle of their program year.” So ACF’s table titled “Federal Poverty Guidelines for FFY 2026” holds the 2025 figures, in force through September 30, 2026.

From October 1, 2026, ACF’s memo LIHEAP-IM-2026-01 says grant recipients “must use” the 2026 HHS guidelines for their FY 2027 programs. For most state programs, that is the switch date:

Household size	Poverty guideline through Sept. 30, 2026	150% through Sept. 30, 2026	Poverty guideline from Oct. 1, 2026	150% from Oct. 1, 2026
1	$15,650	$23,475	$15,960	$23,940
2	$21,150	$31,725	$21,640	$32,460
3	$26,650	$39,975	$27,320	$40,980
4	$32,150	$48,225	$33,000	$49,500

The new 150% figures come from ACF’s FY 2027 table. If you were turned down this summer by a small margin, ask to be screened again after October 1 — the line for a family of four moves up by $1,275. A few programs whose year starts July 1 already switched in the summer, so ask your office which table it is using. If you think a denial was wrong, federal law also gives you a fair hearing — see what to do if LIHEAP is denied.

The 150% column is still only one of the two ceilings, and in most states it is not the one that applies: 32 states and DC set their heating limit by state median income instead — at 60% of it everywhere except Maryland and Minnesota — which is usually higher. Those median-income figures also reset for FY 2027. Our companion guide, LIHEAP income limits by state, lists each state’s standard and its four-person ceiling both before and after October 1, 2026.

A quick eligibility checklist:

• Your household income is within your state’s LIHEAP limit
• You are responsible for home energy costs (rules for renters vary by state — ask your local office)
• You apply through the state, tribe, or territory where you live

Many LIHEAP applicants also qualify for SNAP food assistance — and the income paperwork overlaps, so it is worth applying for both. The same goes for Section 8 housing vouchers, which use similar income documentation.

How to Apply for LIHEAP

1. Find your state or local LIHEAP office. The HHS LIHEAP page points consumers to the energyhelp.us portal, where you can look up your state’s program.
2. Or call the NEAR hotline. The National Energy Assistance Referral service at 1-866-674-6327 connects you with your local program, per HHS.
3. Gather your documents. Expect to show proof of income for household members, a recent energy bill, and identification. Your state office will give you the exact list. If you already collected income paperwork for another benefit application, reuse it — the documents overlap heavily.
4. Submit your application the way your state requires. Some states take applications online, others through local community action agencies.
5. Tell them if it is an emergency. If you have a disconnect notice or are out of fuel, say so — crisis assistance exists exactly for that (HHS).

When to Apply

LIHEAP money is limited, and states run their programs on their own schedules — many split funds between a heating season and a cooling season, and programs can stop taking applications when the year’s funds run out. Because dates differ by state, contact your state or local office (or call NEAR at 1-866-674-6327) to ask when applications open, and apply as early as you can once they do.

In California? Getting LIHEAP also qualifies your household for CARE, the state-required utility discount of 30-35% on electricity — see our California CARE program guide.

Watch Out for LIHEAP Scams

Because LIHEAP involves government money, scammers use its name. Remember these facts from HHS:

• LIHEAP does not provide grants directly to individuals. If someone says the federal government will send you a LIHEAP grant, it is a scam.
• LIHEAP never charges a fee. You should never pay anyone to apply.
• Real applications go through your state, tribal, or territory program — not through unsolicited calls, texts, or social media messages.

HHS puts the same warning in a notice on the program page: “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.”

So there are two numbers worth saving: 1-866-674-6327 (NEAR, to find your state’s program) and 1-800-447-8477 (the HHS Fraud Hotline, to report a fake grant offer or fee request).

If you gave information to a suspected scammer, contact your state LIHEAP office and your bank right away.

One last tip: if money is tight enough to need energy bill help, check the Lifeline program too — it takes up to $9.25 off your monthly phone or internet bill, and households in programs like SNAP qualify automatically.

To stop paying for the same heat loss every winter, see our guide to the Weatherization Assistance Program — it pays for insulation and air sealing, and many states use the LIHEAP income rules to decide who qualifies.

How We Checked This

The eligibility band in this guide is quoted from the statute itself, 42 U.S.C. § 8624(b)(2), rather than from a summary — including the sentence most summaries drop, which forbids a state from setting its income door below 110% of poverty. The rule about which year’s poverty table applies comes from 45 CFR 96.85 and from ACF’s own published FFY 2026 tables, not from a news article.

That check changed this guide. An earlier version used the 2026 HHS poverty guidelines ($15,960 for one person, $33,000 for four) as the yardstick. Those figures are correct for HHS and wrong for LIHEAP until October 1, 2026 — ACF’s operative FFY 2026 table contains the 2025 figures, $15,650 and $32,150. We corrected the table on August 27, 2026 and say so here rather than quietly swapping the numbers.

On September 26, 2026, ahead of the October 1 switch, we read ACF’s memo LIHEAP-IM-2026-01 and its FY 2027 poverty table, re-read 45 CFR 96.85 (eCFR, current through September 23, 2026), and added the October 1 figures side by side with the old ones. We say “most state programs” rather than “all” because the rule’s deadline is October 1 or the start of the state’s fiscal year, whichever is later, and the Clearinghouse notes a few programs start their year July 1.

Income figures are the federal tables for FFY 2026 and FY 2027 in the 48 contiguous states and D.C., not your state’s determination; your state’s LIHEAP limit and season dates may differ — always confirm with your state office. Program facts — the NEAR hotline, the HHS Fraud Hotline number and the no-fee warning — were re-verified on acf.gov on September 26, 2026 (page marked “Published August 5, 2026, Updated September 23, 2026”).