Help With Your Electric Bill in New Hampshire: Fuel Assistance Program

New Hampshire does not publish its application dates. Call 603-271-3670 and ask when the current season opens — and ask about crisis help in the same call if your power is at risk.

There is no separately named crisis grant. The Fuel Assistance Program itself can help in a heating emergency by securing an emergency delivery of fuel, by delaying a shut-off notice, by delaying an eviction notice where heat is included in an unsubsidized rent, or by referring you to another source of help. Route is the same: call your local Community Action Agency, or 211.

There is no online application and no state-run intake. Call your local Community Action Agency to set up an appointment: list at https://www.energy.nh.gov/consumers/help-energy-and-utility-bills/community-action-agencies, or dial 211. If you are homebound, ask the CAA for a home visit or a telephone interview. Eligibility for Fuel Assistance and Weatherization is normally settled in the same appointment.

Benefits range from $100 to $2,177 and average $1,045. Calculated from household income, energy costs, heating degree days in the region and housing type, so the lowest incomes with the highest bills get the most. The grant does not have to be paid back and is not counted as income for other programs.

Not itemised online. The CAA tells you at booking what to bring; the brochure warns that bringing everything requested to the appointment is what prevents delays. Expect gross income for the household, heating and electricity bills or account details, and proof of address.

Winter period November 15 through March 31 (NH Code of Administrative Rules En 1202.20, formerly Puc 1200). During it: arrears must exceed a floor before a disconnection notice can even be sent to a primary residence — $125 for gas non-heating customers, $225 for electric non-heating, $450 for electric and gas heating customers (En 1204.03). Utilities must get Department approval before disconnecting a residential customer known to be 65 or older. Nobody can be disconnected in the winter period for non-payment of a deposit. Financial-hardship customers get a payment arrangement of 12 months, or for the duration of the winter period at 10% of the monthly balance. Rules: https://gc.nh.gov/rules/state_agencies/en1200.html

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

Two other things stack: the Electric Assistance Program gives income-eligible customers of Eversource, Unitil, Liberty and NHEC a discount on the monthly electric bill, and SAFETANK helps homeowners repair or replace an ageing heating oil tank. FAP fraud reports go to [email protected].

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