Help With Your Electric Bill in Pennsylvania: LIHEAP

PUBLISHED AND UPCOMING. The 2026/27 season opens Monday, November 2, 2026 and runs through Friday, April 23, 2027. The 2025-2026 season is closed. Households that got LIHEAP last season are mailed a 2026/27 application or a COMPASS postcard with a registration number that lets them apply BEFORE November 2. Everyone else can request an application on or after November 2. The Crisis season also begins November 2, 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.

LIHEAP Crisis grant. Qualifying emergencies: broken heating equipment or leaking lines needing repair or replacement; no fuel; main or secondary heat source completely shut off; less than a 15-day fuel supply; or a termination notice saying service will be cut within the next 60 days. Every crisis request must be made by the customer to a County Assistance Office, and a CAO worker must call the vendor to authorise the payment each time - LIHEAP Crisis will not pay for a delivery the CAO did not authorise, or if the emergency was resolved first. If you already got a LIHEAP grant this season you do not need a new application unless you moved or someone new joined the household. Helpline 1-866-857-7095.

Online at www.compass.state.pa.us on or after November 2, 2026; or by phone or in person at your County Assistance Office; or by calling the LIHEAP Client Helpline 1-866-857-7095. Track the application at trackmybenefits.pa.gov.

Cash grants for 2026/27 run from a $200 minimum to a $1,000 maximum, set by region, annual income, heating type and household size. One regular cash grant per heating season, paid straight to the utility or fuel supplier as a bill credit. It is a grant - it is not repaid. Crisis grants run from $25 up to a season maximum of $1,000 and you can get several during a season as long as the total stays under $1,000.

Not itemised on the pages read. The LIHEAP brochure (English, Spanish, Arabic, Cambodian, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese) and the LIHEAP Policy Handbook are linked from the DHS page.

Winter moratorium December 1 through March 31, under 52 Pa. Code section 56.100: an electric or gas distribution utility may not terminate service to a household with income at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. On top of that, the PUC reported that major electric and gas utilities committed that LIHEAP-eligible households will not be terminated for non-payment between the start of the LIHEAP season (traditionally November 1) and the start of the moratorium on December 1 - closing the November gap. When the moratorium ends on March 31 the PUC urges consumers to call their utility before that date to set up a payment plan.

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

The $100 supplement some customers received in July or August 2026 came out of last season's funds and does NOT affect eligibility for a 2026/27 grant. The 2026-2027 state plan was still going through public comment in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, but the season dates and income table are already published by DHS.

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