Help With Your Electric Bill in North Dakota: LIHEAP

OPEN NOW, all year. North Dakota has dropped the seasonal window: 'LIHEAP applications are accepted year-round' and, under the Weather Any Weather change, heating benefits are now issued year-round and are 'no longer tied to the traditional heating season of Oct. 1 - May 31'. Instead of stopping on 31 May, assistance runs until the household's review date, when continued eligibility is redetermined. Each household gets an annual review packet the month before it is due, based on its approval date; if the review is not returned on time benefits end on the last day of the eligibility period. Any older page saying 'apply October 2 through May 31' describes the previous arrangement.

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.

Emergency help. If you have an energy-related emergency — a shut-off or disconnection notice, out of deliverable fuel, or minor repairs — contact the Customer Support Center: 1-866-614-6005 or 701-328-1000 (TTY 711), [email protected], fax 701-328-1006. If electricity is not your primary heat source, take your LIHEAP approval notice to your local Community Action Partnership for Energy Share, which may cover emergency electric costs. Furnace problems: take the approval notice to Community Action Partnership for repair or replacement.

Three ways. Online in the Self-Service Portal (SSP) at hhs.nd.gov — create a North Dakota login and link your case. Print an application and return it to the Customer Support Center or hand it in at your local Human Service Zone office. Or request that an application be mailed to you and send it back to the Customer Support Center. A Community Options outreach worker will come to you and help you fill it in: call 1-800-823-2417.

North Dakota 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.

The completed LIHEAP application; verification of income for the previous month, the current month and what you expect next month; verification of expenses paid over the last 12 months including medical, childcare and child support or alimony; a copy of your heating bill; and a copy of your lease if you rent.

There is NO winter moratorium in North Dakota, and the state says so plainly. The Public Service Commission's own consumer sheet states its rules 'DO NOT PROHIBIT disconnect during winter months, as long as the other protections are followed'. What the rules do give (NDAC 69-09-01-18 for natural gas, 69-09-02-05.1 for electric): no disconnect for non-payment of anything that is not utility service, of a deposit, of merchandise bought from the utility, or of a previous occupant's bill; and a landlord who bundles utilities into rent and receives a disconnect notice must tell tenants in writing at least 10 days ahead, with each tenant allowed to open an account in their own name. Only investor-owned utilities are bound — NSP/Xcel Energy, Montana-Dakota Utilities, Great Plains Natural Gas, Otter Tail Power and Dakota Natural Gas. Municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives are not, though they may have their own policies. Complaints: PSC 701-328-2400.

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

Two things to report within 10 days or risk no payment, an overpayment or a closed case: moving house, changing your type of heat, someone joining or leaving the household, or a change in low-income housing or rent subsidy status. The medical and childcare expense deductions are worth claiming — they are asked for on the checklist.

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