For senior citizens on a fixed income, a harsh winter and the subsequently higher heating bills can cause serious financial strain, but changes to a Clark Public Utilities District assistance program should make heating the home a little more comfortable.
Recently the Clark Public Utilities District commissioners voted to ease eligibility restrictions of its Senior Citizen Rate Credits program.
The program offers qualifying seniors a 50 percent credit on winter electric bills, up to $500, based on their bills from the previous winter.
The program is designed to help seniors in need, but officials at Clark PUD said participation in the program has decreased in recent years.
“We don’t capture data to explain that decrease, but we expect that raising the income threshold will increase participation and have budgeted accordingly in 2018,” utility spokeswoman Erica Erland said in an email. “The change is good and will help customers who are vulnerable and may not qualify for other forms of assistance.”
In order to currently qualify, seniors must be at least 62 years old, been a utility customer for at least a year, and have an income of no more than $24,000.
Once enrolled, seniors must renew every year, and re-qualify for eligibility every four years.
However, as of Jan. 1 2018, the qualifying income limit will rise from $24,000 to $32,480, which is 200 percent of the federal poverty level for a household of two.
The income limit will also adjust annually to account for annual cost-of-living adjustments and to stay at 200 percent of the poverty level. That figure will then be the income limit, regardless of the number of people living in the home.
That differs from some other assistance programs, which have income limits that change based on the number of people living in the home.
The utility won’t accept applications based on the changes before Jan. 1, however, because customers will need to give their 2017 information for verification.
“This will help some customers who may have received Social Security COLA adjustments that moved them out of the threshold,” Erland said.
Through September, just under 2,900 households participated in the program — 73 percent of which were one-person households. All of them were on a fixed income. Most of the people enrolled received about $300 in credits on their heating bills.
The last time the utility made changes to the program was in 2004, when the income threshold was increased to $24,000 from $18,000.
“It’s been on the radar for a while in terms of needing an adjustment,” Erland said. “(The changes) will widen the net for this particular program.”
