Help With Your Electric Bill in Delaware: Delaware Energy Assistance Program

Winter Heating Assistance is available 1 October to 31 March. Crisis Assistance is available YEAR-ROUND, including right now. Summer Cooling Assistance has no published dates and requires that you already applied for LIHEAP earlier in the same program year. No closing-when-funds-run-out clause is stated.

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 Assistance, available year-round, for a utility shut-off or disconnection notice, a fuel tank at or below 10%, or past-due energy bills. It can be used on top of Winter Heating Assistance. Apply through ASSIST or call the county Catholic Charities number above; the DEAP information line at DSS is 302-255-9875.

Online any time through the ASSIST self-service portal at assist.dhss.delaware.gov. Or by phone/in person with Catholic Charities, Diocese of Wilmington, 19 Lambson Lane, Rosehill Community Center Suite A109, New Castle DE 19720 — New Castle County (302) 654-9295, Kent County (302) 674-1782, Sussex County (302) 856-6310 — or First State Community Action Agency, 308 N. Railroad Ave, Georgetown DE 19947, 1-800-372-2240.

Income at or below 60% of Delaware's state median income, measured AFTER federal and local taxes. Delaware does not publish the dollar table on this page.

Delaware 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 Delaware 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.

Delaware PSC regulation 26 DE Admin. Code 3002 defines a heating season of 15 November to 31 March and a cooling season of 1 June to 30 September, with 14 days' written notice required before any termination in those seasons (plus two documented phone attempts in the heating season, one after 6 p.m.; one attempt in the cooling season). Absolute bar: no termination on a day the NWS 8 a.m. temperature within 50 miles of the home is 32F or below, and none on a day the 8 a.m. forecast predicts a heat index of 105F or above within 50 miles. Deferred terminations get a notice left at the door. Note these regulations were under revision — a proposed update went to hearing on 5 Nov 2025 with comments to 20 Nov 2025 — so confirm the current text with the PSC.

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

Watch the URL: dhss.delaware.gov/dss/services/liheap/ still exists but is nearly empty — the page with the real content is /dss/division-of-social-services/utility-assistance/. Weatherization is not DHSS's: it is DNREC's free Weatherization Assistance Program.

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