What New York State does when a heating bill cannot be paid - and how to get help
New York State treats the loss of home heat as a health and safety problem, and its law reflects that. A statute called the Home Energy Fair Practices Act governs when and how a utility may shut off residential service, adds layers of protection in winter, and gives every customer the right to a payment agreement. Around that law sit a monthly bill discount, a duty on county social services offices to respond to shutoff emergencies, and heat funds run by charities with utility money.
This page covers that statewide picture. The HEAP grant, its crisis benefits, and furnace repair have their own page on this site, help from each individual utility company sits on the company and utility pages, and New York City's local programs have a city page — each is pointed to below where it belongs.
The cold weather period and what it stops
From November 1 through April 15, a utility cannot treat a heat-related shutoff as routine. Before disconnecting, it must try to reach you or another adult in the home — by phone or in person, at least three days ahead and again on the day itself — and its staff must judge whether losing heat could seriously harm the health or safety of anyone living there.
If harm looks possible, the utility has to alert the local Department of Social Services and leave service on for at least another 15 business days while that office investigates. If service was shut off without the utility ever reaching an adult in the home, and someone may be endangered, service gets restored for 15 business days while social services looks into it. If a shutoff is threatened at any point, the Department of Public Service runs a hotline for exactly that situation at (800) 342-3355, and the full set of rules is laid out on the Department of Public Service HEFPA rights page at https://dps.ny.gov/your-rights-residential-gas-electric-or-steam-customer-under-hefpa.
The calendar rules are strict in every season. A shutoff for nonpayment requires a written final notice, and at least 35 days must pass from a missed due date before service can be disconnected. Disconnections may happen only Monday through Thursday between 8 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon — never on a holiday, the day before one, or during the two-week stretch that includes Christmas and New Year's Day.
Renters have their own protections when a landlord stops paying the building's bill. The utility must notify tenants well before any disconnection — at least 30 days ahead for heat-related service in the cold weather period — and state law lets tenants pay the utility directly and subtract those payments from the rent.
Medical certificates, older adults, and payment agreements
A medical emergency stops a shutoff on its own. When a doctor or the local board of health tells the utility that losing service would worsen a medical condition, service stays on for 30 days, the notice can start with a phone call as long as written certification follows within five business days, and renewals are possible — with longer periods for chronic conditions, and open-ended protection where electricity runs life-support equipment. Households where every adult is 62 or older, blind, or disabled should tell their utility so the account is coded: coded accounts get extra contact attempts before any shutoff, involvement of social services, and additional time.
Every customer also holds the right to a deferred payment agreement. A utility must offer installments on an overdue balance, the terms have to fit what your finances can bear, and you are allowed to propose your own terms — the company must accept a proposal that is fair given your circumstances, and the rules cap how large a down payment or monthly installment it can demand.
If your situation worsens through no fault of your own, the agreement can be revised. Once you pay what is due, sign an agreement and make its down payment, or present a medical certificate, a disconnected household must be reconnected within 24 hours where possible. And a bill amount you have formally disputed with the utility or the state cannot be the basis of a shutoff while the complaint is under review.
Your county's duty in a shutoff emergency
New York's social services law puts an obligation on every local Department of Social Services: when a household faces a genuine utility shutoff or has already lost service, the office must act to resolve the emergency, and this reaches beyond families on public assistance. A household with income above the public assistance level may still receive an emergency utility payment, with a repayment agreement — spread over as long as two years — as the usual condition. In New York City the same help is called Emergency Assistance, widely known as a One Shot Deal, and runs through HRA and the ACCESS HRA site at https://a069-access.nyc.gov/accesshra/.
Apply the day a final termination notice arrives rather than waiting for the shutoff itself, and bring the notice and the bill. The office will expect you to use whatever else is available — a HEAP benefit, a payment agreement — as part of the resolution. How these emergency grants work alongside the state's other cash programs is covered in the NHPB guide to social services - public assistance in New York.
A monthly discount through the Energy Affordability Program
The Energy Affordability Program is the piece that changes the bill itself, month after month. Every large electric and gas utility in the state applies an EAP discount to households receiving a HEAP benefit — any HEAP benefit, for any fuel — and enrollment happens automatically through a data match with the state.
Households on Temporary Assistance, Safety Net Assistance, SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, a veterans disability or survivors pension, federal public housing help, or the Lifeline phone program may also qualify, though some must send the utility proof themselves. Enrollment typically runs 18 months before recertification, and it comes with budget billing to level the seasonal swings, which you can drop at any time.
A newer tier reaches further. The Enhanced Energy Affordability Program offers discounts to households below the state or area median income that miss the traditional program's criteria — a group that includes many working families — and requires signing up directly with the utility or through the state's enrollment site. Details, each utility's application, and both tiers are collected on the Department of Public Service Energy Affordability Program page at https://dps.ny.gov/energy-affordability-program.
Heat funds run by charities with utility money
New York's utilities put donation money into heat funds and hand the administration to charities, and these funds exist for the household that everything above has missed — the income slightly over the HEAP line, the benefit already spent, the oil dealer who wants payment up front. The Salvation Army administers National Fuel's Neighbor for Neighbor Heat Fund in western New York, which requires no shutoff notice, covers any heating source except electric, and is open even to households in the territory that buy fuel elsewhere, along with the Orange & Rockland Neighbor Fund, which sets no income or age limits at all. The Salvation Army has multiple locations and other programs across the state - see the Salvation Army New York assistance NHPB guide.
HeartShare Human Services runs the Project SHARE Heating Fund for NYSEG and RG&E customers holding disconnection notices, Con Edison's EnergyShare, and National Grid's funds — including Hope & Warmth, built specifically for households above the HEAP income guidelines, and heating funds that open each February and close when the money runs out. On Long Island, United Way of Long Island manages Project Warmth, reached through the 211 Long Island line, with grants paid straight to oil dealers and utilities.
The common thread is timing: these are seasonal pools of donated money, so the households helped are usually the ones that call early. Every fund, its administrator, and its contact numbers are cataloged on the Department of Public Service utility grant programs page at https://dps.ny.gov/additional-utility-grant-programs.
Where HEAP, crisis grants, and furnace repair fit
HEAP is the federal heating grant and the anchor most other help attaches to — an EAP discount follows it automatically, and several of the charitable funds key their income tests to it. The season opens in the fall, one regular benefit goes to a household per season, and separate emergency benefits respond when fuel is nearly gone or a shutoff is close. Those emergency benefits matter most for homes heating with oil, propane, kerosene, or wood, because the shutoff protections earlier on this page govern utilities and cannot make a fuel dealer deliver. The same system repairs or replaces broken furnaces and boilers and connects to free weatherization. All of it — who qualifies, benefit types, and how to apply — lives in the NHPB guide to HEAP and weatherization in New York.
The rest of New York's help
Free efficiency work statewide now runs under the EmPower+ name, and each utility layers its own payment plans and conservation programs on top of everything here — the NHPB guide to utility bill assistance in New Yorkcovers that ground company by company. New York City residents also have a city layer of heating help, gathered in the NHPB guide to heating bill assistance in New York City.
Utility rules in New York are set by state law and the Public Service Commission, program income limits move every year, and charitable heat funds depend on donations that run out. Confirm current terms with the utility, agency, or fund itself before relying on anything written here. This page is general information, not legal advice.
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