Help With Your Electric Bill in Alabama: LIHEAP

Alabama does not publish its application dates. Call 800-392-8098 and ask when the current season opens — and ask about crisis help in the same call if your power is at risk.

Three crisis components: winter, summer, and year-round. A crisis exists when a household faces disconnection, is out of fuel, or a household member's life or health is endangered by lack of heat, air conditioning or ventilation (documented with a physician or nurse statement), or the household has a child under 18. A crisis must be resolved within 48 hours of a complete application; a LIFE-THREATENING crisis within 18 hours, and documentation can be waived if it cannot be obtained in 18 hours. Apply at your county community action agency; elderly and disabled applicants may name an authorized representative to apply for them. No state crisis hotline.

Never with ADECA — it does not schedule appointments or accept applications. Contact the community action agency for your county (interactive map and PDF contact list at adeca.alabama.gov/liheap/). Some agencies take applications on their own website or through the state's LITT Lite online form; most went back to in-person appointments in 2021.

Household income must not exceed 150% of the federal poverty level. Worked example in the state plan: a one-person household at 150% FPG is $23,475/year, i.e. $1,956/month. Targeting favours the lowest incomes with the highest energy burden, and households with members aged 60+, with disabilities, or young children.

Alabama does not publish the benefit amounts on the page we read. It is paid to the utility, not to you, and depends on household size, income and fuel type.

Not itemized on the Alabama page we read. Expect ID, a recent energy bill, proof of income for everyone in the household and, if you have one, the shut-off notice.

The public page is essentially a county directory: no dates, no income table, no document list. The only place ADECA publishes dates, benefit caps and crisis response times is the LIHEAP State Plan PDF. That is the single biggest gap in this batch for someone with a shutoff notice.

In most states the same office runs SNAP food benefits, and receiving one often makes the other automatic or faster. SNAP in Alabama →