Help With Your Electric Bill in Louisiana: Louisiana LIHEAP

Three separate windows, published by LHC: Heating Dec 15 - Mar 31; Cooling Apr 13 - Sep 30; Crisis all year, Oct 1 - Sep 30. As of 10-Sep-2026 the cooling season is OPEN but the statewide ONLINE application is CLOSED - local parish agencies keep taking applications Apr 13 - Sep 30, 2026 or until funds run out. Only one LIHEAP benefit per season per household. The winter heating window reopens Dec 15, 2026.

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, open year-round Oct 1 - Sep 30. Needs a disconnect or pending-disconnect notice plus the standard documents. Must be requested by appointment at your parish agency (no online crisis applications). Find your parish agency and its phone in the LHC provider directory map at lhc.la.gov/energy-assistance.

Online at the statewide LIHEAP portal linked from https://www.lhc.la.gov/energy-assistance when it is open; otherwise in person or by appointment at your parish agency from the LHC provider directory on the same page. Crisis applications are NEVER taken online - only through the local agency.

Louisiana 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.

Heating and cooling utility bills no older than 30 days; all pay stubs from the last 30 days; proof of unearned income (Social Security, unemployment, pension, disability); disconnect notice if applying for Crisis; proof of current address (lease, deed, rent receipt); government photo ID and Social Security card; proof of everyone living in the household and their Social Security cards.

No winter-month moratorium. The Louisiana PSC General Order R-29706 (10-5-2007) bars disconnection of electric and gas service during periods of extreme weather - press reports describe protection when temperatures fall below 32F. Rules listed at lpsc.louisiana.gov/ConsumerNews and lpsc.louisiana.gov/Regs_General. Applies only to LPSC-regulated utilities (not New Orleans, which is regulated by the City Council).

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

LHC warns that no one from LHC or a local agency will ever ask for logins, passwords or bank/card numbers, and that applying is free. Online applications submitted this cycle are processed for payment May 1 - Jul 15, 2026.

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