New York Rolls Out $567 Million in Utility Bill Credits for Low-Income Households

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on July 28 announced the rollout of a $567 million COVID-19 bill credit program to help low-income electric and gas utility customers settle accrued bills incurred during the recent pandemic. The credit will reflect on customers’ August bills. Over 327,000 low-income customers are expected to directly benefit from the program. The financial assistance program comprises about $557 million COVID-19 bill credit for low-income households sanctioned by the New York State Public Service Commission. The agency will spend $250 million from the 2023 financial year budget to offer a one-time credit to households registered in the state’s Energy Affordability Program, or EAP, which will clear outstanding utility bills accumulated through May 2022. The program provides the same financial assistance for any entitled low-income households that join the EAP by December 2022.

The bill credit program will coordinate all state assistance available to ensure maximum benefits to ratepayers and to prevent duplication of efforts. This includes about $100 million from the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) Emergency Rental Assistance Program, and $36 million provided by shareholders of utilities to aid ratepayers.

Existing low-income customers in the EAP do not need to take any action to qualify for this one-time, low-income utility bill credit. PSEG Long Island and the municipal utilities are assigned $10.4 million of the $250 million mentioned in the budget to be leveraged for the bill credit program. Governor Hochul recently launched a new initiative between OTDA and the major utilities to identify further low-income customers to join the EAP program. The commission also expects a future proposal by consumer groups and stakeholders to address the significant rise in pending utility bills for remaining residential and industrial customers amid the pandemic.