Federally Administered Means-Tested Programs - Help In Paying The Heating Bill

What is now the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) began as Title III of the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 (PL 96-223). The act provided funding for the states to create programs for three types of energy assistance:

TABLE 8.15
Characteristics of children enrolled in Head Start, selected fiscal years, 1980–2002
(By percent enrolled)

		Age of children enrolled				Enrollment by race
Fiscal year	Disabled	5 and older	4	3	Under 3	Native American	Hispanic	Black	White	Asian
1980	12	21	55	24	0	4	19	42	34	1
1982	12	17	55	26	2	4	20	42	33	1
1984	12	16	56	26	2	4	20	42	33	1
1986	12	15	58	25	2	4	21	40	32	3
1988	13	11	63	23	3	4	22	39	32	3
1990	14	8	64	25	3	4	22	38	33	3
1991	13	7	63	27	3	4	22	38	33	3
1992	13	7	63	27	3	4	23	37	33	3
1993	13	6	64	27	3	4	24	36	33	3
1994	13	7	62	28	3	4	24	36	33	3
1995	13	7	62	27	4	4	25	35	33	3
1996	13	6	62	29	4	4	25	36	32	3
1997	13	5	60	30	4	4	26	36	31	3
1998	13	6	59	31	4	3	26	36	32	3
1999	13	5	58	33	4	3	27	35	31	3
2000	13	5	56	33	6	3	29	35	30	3
2001	13	4	54	35	7	4	30	34	30	2
2002	13	5	52	36	7	3	30	33	28	3
SOURCE: "Table 15–Headstart 2. Characteristics of Children Enrolled in Head Start, Selected Fiscal Years, 1980–2002," in The Green Book, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, 2003 [Online] http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/greenbook2003/HeadStart.pdf [accessed February 4, 2004]

• Helping poor households pay their heating and cooling bills.
• Using low-cost insulation to make homes more energy efficient.
• Providing financial aid to households during energy-related emergencies (unusually long cold or hot spells).

In 1981 Title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA; PL 97-35) gave form and substance to the program. Funding peaked at an estimated $2.1 billion in 1985 and declined throughout the 1990s. In 2001 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services increased funding by 27 percent over 2000, appropriating $1.4 billion in LIHEAP block grants.

Home heating assistance benefits, by far the major service of LIHEAP, served about 4.6 million families during 2004 and totaled about $1.7 billion. According to Kristin Thomson in The LIHEAP Databook: A State-by-State Analysis of Home Energy Assistance, (Washington, DC: Campaign for Energy Assistance, 2004), of the 29.9 million families eligible in fiscal year 2001, only about 15.5 percent received energy assistance, with almost 4.4 million receiving assistance with heating costs and about 250,000 receiving assistance for cooling. Benefit amounts vary widely throughout the states, ranging from larger grants in colder states with high costs of heating, such as Alaska, Montana, and New Jersey, to much lower grants in generally warmer states, such as Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina. Benefits apply to both heating and cooling in some states such as Texas.

States make payments directly to eligible households or to home energy suppliers to be used for eligible households. The highest level of assistance is given to households with the lowest income and highest energy costs in relation to income, taking into account family size and whether infants, children, or elderly are a part of the household.