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EAP Policy Manual FFY24 Chapter 4 Primary Heat Page 7

Common Consumption Questions How is consumption collected in emergencies? Service Providers must establish procedures with energy vendors for obtaining consumption data in emergency situations. Can consumption data be changed? Once a household has been determined eligible for EAP, eHEAT will not allow energy vendors to change their consumption data. Vendors must contact the household’s Service Provider if consumption information needs to be changed after eligibility has been determined. How is consumption data collected for Safe at Home (SAH) participants? The SAH participant’s name and utility account number should be enough for utilities to provide EAP with consumption data. However, when manually requesting consumption data for SAH participants, Service Providers should instruct energy vendors not to return address information. See Chapter 2 – Applications & Application Processing for more on the SAH program. Measuring Financial Need A household’s financial need determines the proportion of their energy costs EAP will pay. To measure financial need, EAP divides a household’s income by the maximum amount allowed for their household size. The result is the household’s income percentile. EAP pays a larger percentage of energy costs for households in the lowest income percentiles. As household income percentile increases, the percentage of their energy costs paid by EAP decreases. The actual percentages of costs paid are not determined until regular LIHEAP funds are awarded, which typically occurs in October or November. Determining Primary Heat Benefits EAP has two methods of calculating a household’s Primary Heat benefit amount. The preferred method uses the household’s actual energy costs. When actual energy costs are not available, a backup matrix of average energy costs from the previous year can be used to determine a benefit. In either case, the minimum Primary Heat benefit is $200 and the maximum is $1,400.