Government shutdown threatens to delay home heating aid for millions of low-income families

HARTFORD, Conn. — Jacqueline Chapman is a retired school aide who relies on a monthly Social Security check of $630 to survive. She was going through the loss of her federal food assistance benefits when she learned that the help she was receiving to heat her Philadelphia apartment might also be in jeopardy.

“I feel like we’re living in scary times. It’s not easy to relax when you know you have things to do with limited accounts and funds. There’s not much you can do,” said Chapman, 74.

Chapman is building on the $4.1 billion Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps millions of low-income households pay to heat and cool their homes.

As temperatures begin to drop in parts of the United States, some states are warning that funding for the program is being delayed due to the federal government shutdown, now in its fifth week.

The anticipated delay comes as the majority of the 5.9 million households benefiting from the federally funded heating and cooling assistance program grapple with the sudden delay of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps about 1 in 8 Americans afford groceries. Money is also running out for other social safety net programs and energy prices are skyrocketing.

“The impact, even if temporary, on many poor families across the country will be profound if we don’t address this problem,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Association of Energy Assistance Directors, which represents the program’s state directors. Commonly known as LIHEAP, it serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and federally recognized tribes.

“These are important income support measures that are all at risk of collapsing at once,” Wolfe said. “And I can’t point to a similar time in recent history where we’ve had this.”

LIHEAP, established in 1981, helps families cover utility bills or the cost of fuels delivered to homes, such as home heating oil. It has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress for decades.

States manage the program. They receive an allocation of federal money each year based on a formula that largely takes into account state weather, energy costs and low-income population data.

While President Donald Trump proposed zero funding for the program in his budget, Congress was expected to fund LIHEAP for the budget year that began October 1. But because Congress has yet to pass a comprehensive spending bill for 2026, states have yet to receive their new allocations.

Some states, including Kansas, Pennsylvania, New York, and Minnesota, announced that their LIHEAP programs were delayed due to the government shutdown.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said it could not fund the more than $200 million in federal LIHEAP aid it hoped would help pay the heating bills of some 300,000 low-income households. It anticipates that payments will not be made until at least December, instead of November, as is usual.

Minnesota’s energy assistance program is processing applications, but the state Department of Commerce said federal LIHEAP dollars would likely be delayed by a month. The agency does not plan to pay beneficiaries’ heating bills before the closure ends.

“As temperatures begin to drop, this delay could have serious consequences,” the agency said. The program serves 120,000 households, homeowners and renters, including many seniors, young children and people with disabilities.

Connecticut has enough money set aside to pay heating bills at least through the end of November or December, according to the group that helps administer LIHEAP. But the program will face uncertainties if the closure persists. Connecticut lawmakers are considering temporarily covering the cost with state budget reserves.

“The situation will become much more perilous for people who need these resources as we move further into the heating season,” said Rhonda Evans, executive director of the Connecticut Association for Community Action. More than 100,000 homes were served last year.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the aid program, blamed the federal government shutdown and delayed LIHEAP payments on congressional Democrats and said the Trump administration was committed to reopening the government.

“Once the government reopens, ACF will work quickly to administer the annual awards,” the spokesperson said, referring to the Administration for Children and Families, an HHS agency. The spokesperson did not directly answer whether the timeline might be affected by the administration’s earlier decision to lay off workers who run the LIHEAP program.

Wolfe, of the group that represents state program directors, predicts there could be delays into January. He noted that questions arose about who would approve states’ program plans and how the money would be released when it became available.

“Once you lay off staff, things slow down,” he said.

Chapman, the retired school aide, may be eligible for a program through her gas utility to avoid being cut off this winter. But the approximately 9 percent of LIHEAP beneficiaries who rely on deliverable fuels such as heating oil, kerosene, propane and wood pellets generally do not benefit from such protections.

Electric and natural gas companies are typically regulated by the state and may be asked not to cut off people’s access while the state waits to receive its share of LIHEAP money, Wolfe said. But it’s different when it’s a small oil or propane company, fuels more common in the Northeast.

“If you’re a heating oil reseller, we can’t say to that reseller, ‘Look, continue to provide heating oil to your low-income customers with the opportunity to get your money back,'” Wolfe said.

Mark Bain, 67, who lives in Bloomfield, Conn., with his son, a student at the University of Connecticut, began receiving financial assistance for his home heating oil needs three years ago.

“I remember the first winter before I knew about this program. I was desperate. I was up in smoke,” said Bains, who is retired and relies on Social Security income and a small annuity. “I called my social services to find out what I could do. »

This year he was given $500 in aid, but he has half a tank of oil left and can’t ask for more until it’s almost empty. At this point, he hopes there will be enough federal money left to fill it. It usually needs three deliveries to make it through the winter.

Bains said he can “get by” if he doesn’t get help this year.

“I would turn the heat down to 62 (degrees) and put on another blanket, you know, just to get through,” he said.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., and Jack Dura in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.