You may be eligible for some help with your heating bill. The federally funded Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program or LIHEAP, partners with local agencies that will cut a check to utilities like MidAmerican Energy to lower the financial strain that comes with higher winter heating bills.
Hawkeye Area Community Action Program spokesman Chris Ackman says applications have increased with the cold weather. “The whole point of the program is basically to provide a credit towards individuals’ heating bills so that they don’t have to worry so much about that during the winter time when it gets cold like it is now,” he says.
The LIHEAP program doesn’t pay the entire heating bill, but it does free up some money in a household budget. “In turn, they can use that for something else like helping to pay for rent, gas, food, whatever that may be so that it’s not such a big burden on them every winter,” he says. Household income must be at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines for you to qualify. For a household of three, their annual gross income must be $49,000 or less.
(By Zachary Smith, Iowa Public Radio)