N.Y. announces electric and gas bill credit program

ALBANY | Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that $567 million is now available to help low-income electric and gas utility customers pay off past utility bills. The financial assistance program includes an estimated $557 million statewide COVID-19 bill credit program for low-income customers adopted by the New York State Public Service Commission. Under the bill credit program, the PSC is leveraging the $250 million from the FY 2023 Enacted State Budget to require utilities to provide a one-time credit to customers enrolled in the Energy Affordability Program that will eliminate unpaid utility bills that have accrued through May 1, 2022. The program also authorizes the same relief for any eligible low-income customers that enroll in EAP by Dec. 31, 2022. "It's unacceptable that far too many New Yorkers are at risk of having their lights shut off for failure to pay their utility bills due to financial problems caused by the pandemic," Gov. Hochul said in announcing the measure June 16. "To address this, I partnered with the State Legislature to appropriate $250 million toward reducing the burden of utility arrears. Today's action by the Public Service Commission builds on the budget appropriation and is a major step forward to help vulnerable New Yorkers maintain their utility services while they get back on their feet." The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant financial hardship to low-income customers and resulted in the shuttering of businesses and widespread loss of jobs. The number of customers that have unpaid utility bills and the total dollar amount of unpaid utility bills has risen considerably since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, and this bill credit program provides financial relief to the most vulnerable residential customers in order to help them avoid having their utility services terminated for non-payment. More than 327,000 low-income New York households will directly benefit from the program. Under the bill credit program, all state assistance available for utility bill assistance will be coordinated to ensure maximum benefits to ratepayers and to avoid duplication of efforts. This includes relief available to low-income customers from the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance's Emergency Rental Assistance Program to reduce unpaid utility bills, estimated at $100 million, coupled with $250 million from the New York State budget appropriation directed to utilities to eliminate pandemic-related unpaid utility bills for low-income households. Utility shareholders have provided more than $36 million in contributions to benefit ratepayers. The bill credit program is estimated to cost the major utility ratepayers $181 million after they are allocated their share of the budget appropriation, and customer credits and shareholder contributions that reduce the program cost are applied. This one-time, low-income utility bill credit, which will be applied to affected customers' bills by the utilities, requires no action by existing low-income customers enrolled in the EAP to receive the benefit. The bill credit is expected to be applied to customers' accounts by Aug. 1, 2022.

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N.Y. announces electric and gas bill credit program

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