The shutdown threatens to delay home heating assistance for millions of low-income families

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Jacqueline Chapman is a retired school assistant who relies on a $630 monthly Social Security check to get by. She was coping with the loss of her federal food aid when she learned that the help she was receiving to heat her apartment in Philadelphia might also be at risk.

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

Chapman relies on the $4.1 billion Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps millions of low-income families pay for heating and cooling their homes.

As temperatures begin to drop in areas across the United States, some states are warning that funding for the program will be delayed due to the federal government shutdown, now in its fifth week.

The expected delay comes as the majority of the 5.9 million households served by the federally funded Heating and Cooling Assistance Program face the sudden deferral of benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries. Money for other safety net programs is running out, and energy prices are skyrocketing.

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“The impact, even if temporary, on many of the nation’s poorest families will be profound if we don’t solve this problem,” said Mark Wolf, executive director of the National Association of Energy Assistance Directors, which represents state administrators of the program. Commonly called LIHEAP, it serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and federally recognized tribes.

“These are important income supports, and they are all likely to go down the drain at the same time,” Wolf said. “I can’t point to a comparable time in recent history where we’ve seen this.”

States warn applicants not to delay funding

The LIHEAP program, created in 1981, helps families cover utility bills or the cost of paying for fuel delivered to homes, such as home heating oil. It has received bipartisan support in Congress for decades.

States administer the program. They get an allocation of federal money each year based on a formula that largely takes into account the state’s weather patterns, energy costs and data on low-income residents.

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 since Congress has not yet passed the full 2026 spending bill, states have not yet received their new allocations.

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Some states, including Kansas, Pennsylvania, New York and Minnesota, have announced postponements of their LIHEAP programs due to the government shutdown.

And in Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said it could not afford the $200 million in federal LIHEAP aid it had expected to help pay heating bills for about 300,000 low-income families. She expects the payments will not go out until at least December, instead of November, as is usual.

The Minnesota Energy Assistance Program is processing applications but the state Department of Commerce said federal LIHEAP dollars will likely be delayed by a month. The agency does not plan to pay recipients’ heating bills until the shutdown ends.

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

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

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

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the aid program, blamed the federal shutdown and delays in LIHEAP payments on Democrats in Congress and said the Trump administration is committed to reopening the government.

“Once the government reopens, ACF will quickly work to administer the annual awards,” the spokesperson said, referring to the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The spokesperson did not directly answer whether the timing might be affected by the administration’s previous decision to fire workers who manage the LIHEAP program.

He watches: Aid to utilities was frozen after the Trump administration fired program employees

Wolf, of the group that represents state program managers, expects there could be delays into January. He noted that there are questions about who will approve states’ program plans and how funds will be released when they become available.

“Once you fire employees, things slow down,” he said.

Low-income families face increasing obstacles

Chapman, a retired school assistant, may qualify for a program through her gas utility to prevent power outages this winter. But the approximately 9% of LIHEAP recipients who rely on deliverable fuels such as heating oil, kerosene, propane and wood pellets typically do not have such protection.

Electric and natural gas companies are typically regulated by the state and could be required not to shut people down while they wait for the state to receive its share of LIHEAP funds, Wolf said. But that’s a different story when it comes to a small business that runs oil or propane, the most common fuel in the Northeast.

“If you’re a heating oil dealer, we can’t say to that dealer, ‘Look, keep providing heating oil to your low-income customers and potentially get your money back,'” Wolf said.

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

“I remember the first winter before I found out about this program,” said Baines, a retiree who relies on Social Security income and a small annuity. “I was desperate. I was so angry.” “I was calling social services to see what I could do.”

This year he was approved for $500 in aid, but he has half a tank of oil and can’t ask for more until it’s almost empty. By that point, he hopes there will be enough federal money to fill it. It usually takes three births to get through the winter.

Baines said he can “manage it” if he doesn’t receive help this year.

“I was turning the heat down to about 62 degrees and putting on another blanket, you know, just to get through it,” he said.

Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Steve Karnovsky in Minneapolis, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Jack Dora in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.