A Maine household of one can earn up to $38,070 a year and still meet the income limit for heating aid this season; a household of four can earn up to $73,213. MaineHousing posts the 2026-27 income table on its Home Energy Assistance Program page, and the applications run through the state’s community action agencies.
An income ladder with a flat top
The 12-month limits climb by almost the same amount for each added person, about $11,714, up to six people: $49,784 for two, $61,498 for three, $73,213 for four, $84,927 for five and $96,641 for six. The table also lists one-month and three-month limits, for households that report a shorter stretch of income.
Then the ladder flattens. A seventh person adds only $2,196, to $98,837, and each person after that adds about the same: $101,033 for eight, $103,230 for nine and $105,426 for ten. Households with more than ten members are told to contact their community action agency for their guidelines.
The flat top means a large household is measured almost as a six-person one. A family of ten has a ceiling only $8,785 above a family of six, a gap smaller than the single jump from one person to two. Large households get little added room for each added member.
Maine retirees and other households deciding whether to call have one number to compare: gross household income, which the table sets over 1, 3 or 12 months. Pension and Social Security income of $49,000 a year would sit just under the two-person limit of $49,784, and the next step for a household in that spot is a call to the local agency, the office that takes the application and screens for eligibility.
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Two calendars, one agency network
The heating program itself started Aug. 3, 2026 and runs until funds are exhausted or May 29, 2027, whichever comes first, MaineHousing says. That makes the season open now rather than opening soon, and applications have been available for almost three months.
Crisis help runs on a separate clock. The page lists crisis assistance, labeled ECIP, from Nov. 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027, which opens in three days. The heating program outlasts it by a month, to May 29, and the separate dates mean a household can use both tracks in the same winter, one for planned fuel costs and one for an emergency.
Households apply online at ecos.mainehousing.org, by phone, or in person at a local agency, found by zip code on the page. The HEAP contact line is (877) 544-3271. MaineHousing’s energy programs page says nine community action agencies distribute the money, in most cases directly to the fuel vendors.
Because the money goes in most cases directly to the fuel vendors, the benefit usually arrives as a credit with the supplier rather than as cash in the household’s hands. The practical test of whether it worked is what the next delivery or bill shows, which is also when a household learns what the benefit actually was.
The same application screens for more than the fuel benefit. The energy programs page says weatherization is screened through the HEAP application, and the Low Income Assistance Program is applied for there too. A household that files once can therefore be screened for services beyond the bill.
What a Maine benefit is, and what MaineHousing has not published
The page says the benefit includes help with fuel costs and emergency fuel delivery, and that the amount varies with household size, income and other household expenses. It does not publish a table of benefit amounts, so a household at the ceiling cannot tell from the page what it would receive.
The size of the need is easier to see. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects heating oil households spending an average $2,115 from November through March, up 21%, on a forecast price of $5.26 a gallon, up 34%. Natural gas households are projected at $640 and electric households at $1,196. All three are national averages, not Maine bills.
Propane households are projected at $1,246 over the same five months, down 3%, on a price of $2.52 a gallon, down 2%. That figure covers only the Northeast, Midwest and South; EIA leaves the West out of it. EIA does not break the figure out by state, so a Maine household can use it only as a rough national marker.
EIA’s base case also has the Northeast running 12% fewer heating degree days than last winter, a milder assumption than a household budgeting for a hard January would want. If the winter turns colder, a benefit that varies with other expenses will be measured against a larger bill.
So the income line is public, the dates are public and the agencies are named, but the dollar amount is the missing piece. For Maine households under the ceiling, the open question is not whether to apply but how large a share of a projected oil or electric bill the benefit will cover, and MaineHousing’s page leaves that to the agency.
Heating bill outrunning the pension?
Maine publishes the income ceilings, $38,070 for one person and $73,213 for four, but not the benefit amount, so a household near the line cannot know what an application will bring until an agency answers, while heating oil is projected up 21% this winter.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit puts the surrounding help in one place. It shows the property-tax freezes and breaks, help with heat and power bills, and home-repair programs for older homeowners, including heating, cooling and home-repair help for a pension that is being outrun by the bill.
Its Part 3, The Senior Programs, and What Each One Does, lays out what each program covers, so a Maine retiree can see where heating aid fits among the rest.
Get the relief kit’s senior-program guide to heating and home-repair help in Maine →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
