Help With Your Electric Bill in Montana: LIHEAP

You may apply for LIHEAP during the heating season, October 1 through April 30 of each year, through your local eligibility office or Tribal LIHEAP office. Weatherization can be applied for all year. The 2026-2027 application is already published (dphhs.mt.gov 2026-2027 LIHEAP application), so the season opens October 1, 2026. No closing-when-funds-run-out language is published.

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.

The program 'may be able to assist with furnace emergencies', and the 2026-2027 application covers Emergency Assistance alongside Heating Assistance. No separate crisis phone line or 48-hour rule is published on the program page — you go through the same local eligibility office or Tribal LIHEAP office. Division contact: (406) 444-1788.

Complete the combined LIHEAP and Weatherization application. It can be filled in online but must then be PRINTED and delivered or mailed to the local eligibility office listed on the last page. Application: https://prod-dphhs.mt.gov/assets/2026-2027LIHEAPApplication_Fillable.pdf. LIHEAP can also be started through the state benefits portal at https://apply.mt.gov/. Tribal households apply through their Tribal LIHEAP office.

Benefit depends on fuel type and bedrooms. Single-family base benefit, 1 bedroom: natural gas $531, electric $839, propane $1,034, fuel oil $1,234, wood $641, coal $462. Four bedrooms: natural gas $1,447, electric $2,286, propane $2,818, fuel oil $3,362. Multi-family amounts are lower (1 bedroom: gas $378, electric $596, propane $735, fuel oil $901).

Proof of income and resources for everyone in the household, and the heating and electric account details; see the last pages of the combined application for the full list and the office to send it to.

Winter moratorium November 1 to April 1. PSC-regulated utilities (NorthWestern Energy, Montana-Dakota Utilities, Energy West and others) must get Public Service Commission approval before disconnecting a delinquent residential account in that period, and the PSC will not approve it if someone in the household is disabled, someone is 62 or older, or the account holder is on public assistance or has income at or below the federal poverty guideline. Utilities the PSC does not regulate (co-ops, municipals) are outside this. Source: psc.mt.gov/Consumers/FAQ and psc.mt.gov Winter-Moratorium-Explained.pdf.

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

The resource test is the thing that catches people out — Montana is one of the few states that counts savings and stocks, not just income. Note also that the application must be printed and physically delivered; there is no fully online LIHEAP submission on the DPHHS page.

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