Nearly one-quarter of Ohio households that cannot afford to pay heating bills can continue to receive heat until March 19 under a new heat disconnection moratorium passed by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in December.
A family's income must be at 175 percent or lower than the federal poverty guideline, which is established annually by the Department of Health and Human Services and adjusted for family size and income. The poverty line is set at 100 percent and as the percentages decrease, the level of poverty a family may be in increases. The 10 percent of Ohio residents who use utility companies not regulated by the commission are not eligible for the program.
Gov. Ted Strickland wrote a letter asking the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to consider the peoples' safety in the winter after a Toledo family who had to use candles as a source of heat died in a house-fire.
The commission, which honored Strickland's request, strongly urges consumers to use the moratorium as a last resort, commission representative Shana Eiselstein said.
The moratorium is there as a safe guard if they've exhausted all means and they simply cannot pay the bill
Eiselstein said. They're still using the energy and it is still going onto their account.
Residents who use the moratorium must pay their utility companies back for all the bills that they missed from Dec. 19, when the moratorium was passed, until March 19, when it ends. Tracy Galway, the Community Relations Coordinator of Athens County Department of Job and Family Services, said she expects a lot of disconnections after March 19 and also recommends that the moratorium be used when all other assistance opportunities have been pursued.
Families that receive a shut-off notice can utilize the Emergency Home Energy Assistance Program. E-HEAP gives utility companies an extra payment so that the family can receive a 30-day supply of heat. But a household can only use E-HEAP once in a season. By March 19, most poor families will have already used E-HEAP and will have a large sum of bills awaiting them, said Crystal Ratliff, Community Services Coordinator of the Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action Program.
The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) assists families who have trouble paying their utility bills. Families who are 150 percent or below the federal poverty guideline can use the Percentage Income Payment Plan to cover their bill. Under the plan, utility customers pay a certain percentage of their income each month, even if it does not equal the total amount they owe. The families have to face the remainder of their bill by the summer, Ratliff said.
I'm not sure how they're going to handle it Ratliff said. The moratorium is a good thing because it is keeping people from freezing to death but if they're unable to keep any payment arrangement with their utility companies once the moratorium expires
they're going to have to pay the entire bill. There will not be anywhere to turn.
Last winter, natural gas and electric companies disconnected their services approximately 400,000 separate times, said Ryan Lippe, spokesman for the Ohio Consumer Council.
Without heat, families resort to desperate alternatives such as heating their homes with candles or kerosene, he said.Every year it seems like we do read about some tragedy in the United States
Lippe said. The moratorium assures at the very least that consumers' heating will remain on. That takes away the possibly of consumers needing to resort to dangerous alternatives.
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