13000 Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP)
13100 Program
Summary
The Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) is federally funded assistance which helps qualifying households pay home energy costs through the issuance of an annual benefit. The benefit is to assist households in the purchase of home heating and cooling energy. In order to be eligible, applicants must meet the following criteria:
An adult household member must be personally responsible
for purchasing heating fuel costs incurred at the current residence,
payable either to the landlord or to the fuel vendor;
The household must demonstrate a recent history of
payments toward purchase of energy costs;
The household must meet citizenship or lawful residency
requirements; and
The household must meet application requirements.
This section establishes the policies and eligibility criteria according to regulations governed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services.
A separate application is used to determine eligibility due to the requirement
for necessary heating and cooling account numbers, fuel type heating systems
and other unique information that is not available through existing system
data. Completed applications will be accepted during the application period
from mid-January through the last working day of March of the given calendar
year.
Applications will be mailed to prior year LIEAP recipients. EES staff will provide LIEAP applications to new food assistance, cash, and medical assistance clients through the last working day in March. Applications will also be available through local helping agencies, utilities and via on-line access.
Applications are submitted to the designated DCF Regional LIEAP processing office for eligibility determination.
Eligibility determination and benefit issuance uses a system on-line to EES Administration. Benefits are issued from EES Administration throughout the program. Households experiencing a fuel supply shortage, or an actual disconnect receive expedited processing according to federal requirements.
Due to significant differences in federal program purposes and regulations, households may be eligible for LIEAP but not TANF or Food Assistance or vice versa. For instance, if a TANF mother and her child live with other friends or relatives, the income from all persons is countable in determining LIEAP eligibility while TANF considers only the mother and child's income. In addition, TANF and other persons who live in subsidized housing may not meet the vulnerability requirements if their federally subsidized rental units include the heating energy costs in the rent subsidy.
13110 DCF Regional
Office Responsibilities - Regional Directors are responsible
for assuring that potential applicants have adequate access to program
information. Activities may include: