Connecticut gas and electric customers who receive SNAP, CEAP or TANF are protected from utility shutoffs from November 1 through May 1, but only if the utility has coded the account as hardship. That is the rule under the state’s winter protection period. The renewal paperwork for hardship status is due in October, which ends in six days.
Who the winter protection period covers
Under the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, customers with hardship or medical protection cannot be shut off from November 1 through May 1. PURA calls it the statutory Winter Protection Period. It still encourages customers to pay on time to avoid a larger balance.
Financial hardship covers anyone receiving local, state or federal assistance, such as the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program (CEAP), SNAP, TANF or unemployment benefits. A household with income at or below 60% of the state median income also qualifies.
Eversource lists a wider set of triggers on its shutoff protection page: Medicaid, SSI or General Assistance, Social Security or Veterans Administration benefits as the only income, current heating assistance, or circumstances that threaten deprivation of the necessities of life. Eversource tells customers to call 800-286-2828 to apply or renew.
Unemployment benefits are on PURA’s list as well. A household whose income fell this year, from a lost job or a lost benefit, may meet the hardship test now even if it did not last winter, and the 60% income test offers a second way in.
The question for a household is therefore not only whether it receives a benefit but whether the utility’s records show hardship. That page speaks only for Eversource accounts, so customers of another gas or electric company should ask that company the same question before November 1.
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Because receiving CEAP is itself on PURA’s list of hardship triggers, an approved energy-assistance application is one route to the designation. Households already collecting SNAP or TANF meet the same test on paper, but the winter rule attaches to the utility’s hardship coding, not to the benefit card.
Late payment charges do not apply during the protection period, Eversource says. The company says the protection runs from November 1 through May 1 and does not state a separate enrollment deadline.
The October renewal
PURA says hardship status may require updated eligibility documents each year, and for winter protection the renewal is due in October. In its words, “Annual renewal is required by submitting updated documentation in October.”
Eversource also says protection must be renewed every year. It suggests checking eligibility while applying for CEAP through a local Community Action Agency, which can put the hardship question and the heating-aid question in one conversation.
Medical protection works on a parallel track. Households with someone facing a serious illness or life-threatening condition can be protected from termination, PURA says. A physician’s certification is required, the designation renews annually, and life-threatening cases are covered at all times, not only in winter.
The protection window is six months long. Once May 1 passes, the winter statute no longer applies, and any balance that built up over the winter remains owed. That is the case for paying what a household can during the protected months.
Protection pauses shutoffs. It does not erase what is owed. Eversource says customers should keep paying as much as they can, because the full balance is still due when the protection period ends on May 1.
Programs that stop a balance from growing
The Matching Payment Program helps hardship-designated electric and gas customers clear past-due balances by matching their payments and energy assistance awards, PURA says. Enrollment has been open since November 1, 2024. Participants keep shutoff protection all year while they make the required payments.
Customers who receive certain state benefits are enrolled automatically in a low-income discount rate set at a 10% discount, according to PURA. A deeper discount requires contacting the utility. The agency’s page does not list higher percentages.
CEAP makes direct payments toward winter heating bills for low-income households. Benefit amounts vary, and households apply each year through their local Community Action Agency. For general help finding utility assistance and social services, PURA points residents to 211.
PURA’s affordability page tells customers having trouble paying to call their utility and ask about hardship protection and payment plans, based on their financial or medical circumstances. The agency’s Clean and Affordable Energy unit works on expanding assistance programs.
PURA’s affordability page also lists earlier state action on shutoffs, including a docket on a state-of-emergency utility shutoff moratorium and another approving a 2021-2022 arrearage forgiveness program. Neither is described as active now, and the winter protection period is the standing rule for this season.
With October nearly over, the open item for a Connecticut household on SNAP, CEAP or TANF is a single phone call to confirm that the hardship code and its documentation are current on every gas and electric account.
Is the hardship code on the account before November 1?
A household can be on SNAP or TANF and still be unprotected if the utility never coded the account as hardship, and the October paperwork is the step most likely to lapse. A shutoff in winter is far harder to reverse than a missed form.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit covers heating, cooling and home-repair help, and its application log and renewal calendar keeps hardship renewals and CEAP dates in one place. Part 7, The Yearly Routine, sets out what to renew and when.
Track heating-help renewals with the Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
