Connecticut’s chief heating and energy assistance grant will increase this winter, according to a plan recently approved by state legislators, but aid remains below pre-pandemic levels.
And while the number of fuel distributors participating in the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program also jumped last year, the head of a key trade association said he fears those numbers could shrink dangerously unless reforms are made.
Households that purchase heat from vendors and earn 60% or less of the statewide median income — less than roughly $57,630 per year — are eligible for a base benefit ranging from $355 to $705, depending upon earnings, household size and other factors. That’s up from last year’s range of $295 to $645.
That’s according to a CEAP budget prepared by the state Department of Social Services and approved recently by the General Assembly’s Appropriations, Energy & Technology and Human Services committees.
Some of these households covered by that plan also can receive from one to three “crisis assistance” payments of $430 each this winter, up $5 per payment from one year ago.
Renters who meet income guidelines and do not purchase fuel from vendors can receive a benefit ranging from $145 to $90. Last year’s range was $125 to $75.
But those grant levels are all down from the plan adopted in August 2019, the last one before COVID struck Connecticut in early 2020.
Households deemed the poorest and most vulnerable could receive up to $2,980 in the winter of 2019-20. The maximum possible grant in the latest plan is $1,995, down more than 49%.
Pre-pandemic renters’ benefits ranged from $190 to $150.
“I worry that if we have another winter like we did last winter — one that is exceptionally cold — that we’re not going to have enough resources to provide people with the support that they need,” said Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee.
Osten also noted that fuel prices have been generally unstable and subject to multiple surges since the U.S. war with Iran began in late February.
Though the energy assistance service is run by the state, its chief source of funding is federal Low Income Household Energy Assistance Program dollars. And while Connecticut’s $86.3 million LIHEAP grant this year is up from $81.7 million 12 months ago — and $10 million greater than pre-pandemic levels — things have worsened overall since 2020.
That’s because 94,280 households are projected to seek energy assistance this winter, up 12.4% from last year and 15% from seven years ago.
Connecticut has used state dollars in recent years to bolster LIHEAP, and Osten and Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, said there likely will be another conversation about shifting state funds into the program when the 2027 General Assembly convenes in early January.
“Based on current pricing, I almost don’t see a way we’re not going to have to” have that conversation, said Needleman, who co-chairs the Energy & Technology Committee. “We’re not going to have people freezing in their houses.”
But the president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, Chris Herb, said this week that unless other reforms are made to the winter assistance program, there soon may not be businesses available to deliver fuel to all households in need.
Increasing demand for services and growing vendor fears about participating are, collectively, “a train wreck in the making,” Herb said.
According to the state Department of Social Services, 212 fuel vendors delivered to CEAP clients last winter. And while that was up considerably from the 123 served two years ago, it still is down 60 vendors or 22% from 2019.
“Most look at it as strictly a community service,” Herb said, adding that delivering to CEAP clients can strain a small business’s finances quickly and significantly.
CEAP relies on a complex system that limits how much participating businesses can charge program-eligible households.
That retail price isn’t set at the same time a fuel distributor purchases home heating oil at one of the terminals spread across Connecticut. And given the unstable political situation in the Middle East, fuel prices can vary by as much as 40 cents per day.
In other words, the price a distributor purchases for fuel and the price it can charge CEAP customers could leave a significant gap.
“We have an adequate vendor network,” said Social Services Department spokeswoman Christine Stuart. But Herb warned the number of available vendors will continue to drop unless policymakers look more closely at the system.
Most fuel vendors “are small mom-and-pop places,” Osten said. “We need to remember that these are small businesses who do a critical job.”
“Your [CEAP] benefit is meaningless if you can’t get anybody to deliver,” added Nora Duncan, who is director of the Connecticut chapter of AARP and vice chairwoman of the state’s Low-Income Energy Water Advisory Board.
The AARP also has been pressing for state lawmakers to increase Connecticut’s role in keeping vulnerable residents warm as aid from Washington shrinks.
