LIHEAP Eligibility: Your Guide to Income Limits and Program Requirements

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The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps low-income households pay for heating or cooling their homes and, in most states, offers extra help in an energy crisis. Qualifying does not guarantee a payment: on average, about 20 percent of qualified households receive benefits, and when the year’s money runs out, no more is paid until Congress provides more. A qualifying household still needs to apply while assistance is available.

The federal government does not accept applications; it gives the money to states, territories and tribes, which set their own rules and application processes. Each also sets its own income limits: Pennsylvania’s for 2026-2027, for example, are $23,940 for a household of one and $49,500 for a household of four.

What LIHEAP can pay for

LIHEAP is not meant to pay all of a household’s energy costs for the season or even the month. In many places it helps only with the main heating source: a household that heats with gas might get help with its gas bill but not its electric bill. Some local programs also offer weatherization, home improvements that make a home more energy efficient.

Rules differ from program to program, so this guide uses Pennsylvania as its main example. In Pennsylvania, a LIHEAP cash grant goes directly to the utility company or fuel provider as a bill credit and does not have to be repaid.

Benefit amounts depend on location, income, energy costs or needs, family size and possibly other factors, with the highest benefits going to households with the highest energy costs or needs. Equal incomes therefore need not produce equal awards.

Decoding LIHEAP Income Guidelines

Federal law generally allows income eligibility up to the greater of 150 percent of the state’s poverty level or 60 percent of state median income. State median income is a state’s income midpoint, with half the measured incomes above it and half below; LIHEAP bases this benchmark on four-person-family estimates and adjusts its limits for household size. Because the ceiling is whichever figure is greater, 150 percent of the poverty level is not a nationwide maximum. The table below shows the federal poverty guidelines for two household sizes.

There is also a floor: a state may not exclude a household solely because of income when that income is below 110 percent of the poverty level for the state. The state may give priority to households with the highest energy costs or needs relative to income. Local programs choose their income limits and apply other eligibility criteria. Ask for the published limit for the household’s size and location, rather than assuming the federal ceiling is the local cutoff.

The federal amounts are underlying poverty guidelines, not nationwide LIHEAP cutoffs. Pennsylvania’s column gives its announced 2026-2027 income limits, illustrating how a local cutoff differs from the poverty benchmark. For other household sizes, Pennsylvania’s limits are $32,460 for two people, $40,980 for three, $58,020 for five and $66,540 for six. A 2025 figure found in a search may belong to an earlier program period, so check the year before comparing it with a new application.

Alaska and Hawaii have separate poverty guidelines, while the federal government does not define these guidelines for the U.S. territories. A territory’s applicant should obtain the program’s own income instructions instead of borrowing a mainland figure.

Federal fiscal years run from October 1 of one calendar year through September 30 of the next. The federal Administration for Children and Families says LIHEAP programs that base eligibility on federal poverty guidelines may use the 2026 guidelines in fiscal year 2026 and must use them in fiscal year 2027. Programs can adopt new poverty guidelines after the date the federal government issues them. The year that matters is the one the local program is using for its current period, not the latest one published.

Who counts in your household

Federal law defines a household as an individual or group living together as one economic unit that customarily buys home energy in common or pays for it through rent with no separate energy charge.

Programs differ on which income counts and over what period. Pennsylvania’s rules show the kind of detail to check. Pennsylvania lets an applicant choose income from the preceding 12 months or the calendar month before the application month, and converts the chosen period’s gross income into an annual figure. Gross income is the amount before deductions, rather than the amount left in a paycheck.

Pennsylvania excludes educational scholarships, grants and loans from income unless the aid is solely for basic living needs such as food and housing.

Pennsylvania applicants must provide documentation of household members’ income amounts and sources, such as pay stubs, including the income of related roomers and of anyone in the household who received LIHEAP in another household during the same program year. An applicant reporting minimal or no income in Pennsylvania must provide evidence explaining how the household meets basic living needs and financial obligations.

Pennsylvania counts income from household members regardless of their relationship to the applicant or their citizenship. When it counts how many people are in the household, however, the state leaves out noncitizens who are not lawfully admitted, as its eligibility rules define that group. A person’s income can therefore count even when that person is not counted toward household size. A household that includes such a noncitizen should ask the office how both rules apply to it.

Other benefits, renters and homeowners

Local programs may automatically qualify households receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income or certain veterans’ benefits, but not every program does, and an application may still be required. Pennsylvania does not offer this automatic eligibility option, although a household already served by its Department of Human Services may choose to use income on file.

Renters may receive LIHEAP when they pay energy costs directly or through rent and otherwise qualify, while eligibility in subsidized housing depends on the local rules and payment arrangement. Federal law requires equitable treatment of eligible homeowners and renters. Owning a home is not the dividing line; the office needs to know how the household pays for heat.

In Pennsylvania, renters, including subsidized-housing tenants, are ineligible when heat is included in the rent with no separate charge and the rent is based on a fixed percentage of income or on the source of income. A subsidized tenant should describe the rent arrangement and any separately paid heating bill instead of relying on the label “subsidized housing.” Pennsylvania applicants do not have to receive other public assistance or have an unpaid heating bill, and may rent or own their homes.

When and where to apply

Application dates, methods and eligibility criteria vary among local LIHEAP programs. The federal LIHEAP search tool lists offices for states, territories and tribes and provides contact information. The National Energy Assistance Referral service can also help identify a local program at 866-674-6327. Use the office serving the home’s location, and ask whether a tribal program is the appropriate route when applicable.

Pennsylvania’s announced 2026/27 season begins November 2, 2026, and runs through April 23, 2027. New Pennsylvania applicants can apply through the state’s COMPASS online system beginning November 2, or contact a County Assistance Office; the customer helpline is 866-857-7095. A County Assistance Office is the local state office that handles the request.

Pennsylvania households that received LIHEAP in the previous season are sent a new application or a COMPASS postcard with a registration number allowing an application before the season begins. A household that got a grant last season should not assume another will arrive automatically; if the new paperwork has not come, contact the office.

Pennsylvania accepts a primary-heating utility bill issued within the two months before applying, or verification from the fuel vendor, with some prior-season fuel receipts also acceptable.

Pennsylvania applicants can check application status through trackmybenefits.pa.gov or contact their County Assistance Office.

Illinois began taking applications October 1, 2026, from priority groups including adults age 60 and older, people with disabilities and families with children age 5 or younger; other income-eligible households can apply beginning November 1. Illinois’s October 1 priority groups also include households that are disconnected from their utilities or energy vendors, have a disconnect date within 7 days, or have less than 25 percent in a propane tank. A household facing one of those emergencies should contact its Illinois county agency about the priority opening rather than wait for the general date.

An open application period does not always mean payments are available. In an October 1, 2026 notice, Nashville’s Metro Action Commission said Davidson County applicants would be waitlisted pending federal funding, with referrals to United Way’s 211 service for other community resources.

If your heat is off or your application is denied

Pennsylvania’s 2026/27 crisis program covers a heating emergency when the household has no heat or is within 15 days of losing heat because of a fuel shortage or utility termination, and requests go to a County Assistance Office. If the heat is off or about to be cut off, say so directly when contacting the office, rather than describing an ordinary unpaid bill.

Federal law requires assistance that resolves an eligible household’s energy crisis within 48 hours after a crisis-benefit application, or within 18 hours in a life-threatening situation. The shorter timetable belongs to crisis assistance for an eligible household; it is not a processing deadline for every ordinary LIHEAP application.

Complaints about a utility company belong with the state public utility commission, while a LIHEAP denial can be appealed through the program’s process. Contact the utility about the shutoff and the LIHEAP office about assistance, without assuming that filing a benefits application itself stops termination.

Federal law requires an opportunity for a fair administrative hearing when a claim for assistance is denied or not acted on with reasonable promptness. The denial notice typically explains the appeal process; if it does not, or no notice arrived, the state, territory or tribe’s main LIHEAP office can explain it. Keep the notice and ask for the filing instructions immediately, so the reason for denial and the review deadline can be checked together.

Pennsylvania’s general rule for appealing assistance decisions sets a 30-day deadline from the date of written notice of a County Assistance Office or administering-agency decision. Pennsylvania’s LIHEAP rules exclude a fair hearing when the program closes for lack of funds before benefits are authorized, or an application is submitted after the program closes. Under those rules, a dispute about the household’s eligibility and a closure caused by exhausted funding do not offer the same path to a payment.