Help With Your Electric Bill in Arizona: LIHEAP

No seasonal window. DES publishes no opening or closing date: LIHEAP is first-come, first-served while funds last, and a household may get one Regular benefit and one Crisis benefit per 12-month eligibility period. One dated note on the page: the benefit amounts and points shown are effective for applications received on or after October 12, 2024, and change annually with federal funding.

Dates move every year and most states stop taking applications when the money runs out, not on the closing date. Checked Sep 10, 2026 — confirm before you count on it.

Crisis benefit, up to $500, once per 12-month eligibility period. You qualify only after your Regular LIHEAP benefit is exhausted AND you have a shut-off or delinquency notice or the equivalent - an eviction notice if utilities are in your rent, or less than 7 days of energy left on portable or pre-paid energy. Same combined application. LIHEAP service line 1-866-494-1981, 8am-5pm Monday to Friday, or your Community Action Agency.

One combined application covers both LIHEAP and Power AZ. Apply online through the A-to-Z Arizona Portal (desportal.az.gov), where DES verifies your identity through ID.me; if you cannot use ID.me, submit the paper application EAP-1002 with a government-issued ID. Your local Community Action Agency (des.az.gov/CommunityActionAgencies) will help you fill it in.

Points-based: income need (up to 5), energy burden (up to 6, plus 2 for deliverable fuel), and one point each for elderly, disabled, a child 6 or younger, and veteran. 1-4 points $160; 5-8 $320; 9-12 $480; 13 or more $640. Paid straight to the utility in the priority order you choose (up to five accounts); leftovers roll to the next account or sit as a credit.

Current utility bill, photo ID, citizenship or immigration documentation, disconnection notice if you have one, and proof of income. Households categorically eligible through DES Cash or Nutrition Assistance do not need income proof.

Summer moratorium, June 1 to October 15, enforced by the Arizona Corporation Commission: regulated electric utilities' tariffs bar disconnection of residential customers for late payment, non-payment or accumulated debt during it. Utilities may instead choose the temperature option - suspending disconnection whenever the forecast is above 95F or below 32F. Note the gap: April and May can pass 100F with no moratorium in force. Applies to ACC-regulated utilities (APS, TEP, UNS), not to municipal utilities or SRP. Details at azcc.gov and ruco.az.gov/hot-topics/disconnection-rules.

This comes from the Arizona utility commission, not from the energy assistance programme — they are different offices and only one of them publishes it.

DES was issuing an extra utility payment automatically - no application - to households approved for LIHEAP or Power AZ on or after March 23, 2026, credited straight to the utility account. Grievances: Administrative Review within 10 calendar days of the decision, or go straight to an appeal within 20 calendar days; you cannot do both.

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