Apply for Low Income Energy Assistance in Virginia.

The annual deadline to apply for the Fuel Assistance Program through the Virginia Department of Social Services’ (VDSS) is around mid November of each and every year. Families and individuals who are interested in receiving assistance must apply for LIHEAP through their local department of social services office. Contact your local county office, or even a community action agency in your area.

The application window opens annually in the fall, in anticipation of much colder winter months in Virginia. The state government as well as local charity organizations strongly encourage those people who think they may need assistance with paying for their heating bills to apply by the programs deadline.

The Fuel Assistance program is a supplemental program that is intended to assist struggling and low to moderate income households in meeting their home heating energy needs. To qualify for the Fuel Assistance program, a one-person household’s maximum gross monthly income cannot exceed about $1,200 per month. So what this means is that for a household of four, the maximum gross monthly income level is about $2,500. While the program is called Fuel Assistance, the program assists with various types of energy sources and bills, including electric bills, natural as well as liquid propane gas, heating oil, kerosene, wood, and coal.

The Virginia Energy Assistance Program is funded by the federal government Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant. The federal LIHEAP program provides money and grants to states across the country to assist low and moderate income households, wood persons, and the elderly. They help them deal with the financial strain and stress of high heating bills. The Fuel Assistance Program was created in 1979 and each year serves approximately 120,000 households located all across the Commonwealth of Virginia.