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When the power or heat might be shut off

For people in the United States who are behind on an electric, gas, heating, water, phone or internet bill, who are holding a shutoff notice, or whose service is already off, and for the people beside them. What to do before the date on the notice. How to ask for a payment plan you can keep. Where the federal energy assistance money is and how to apply. What your state’s shutoff rules do and don’t do. Help with a phone or internet bill. The shutoff call that is a scam. What to say on the phone. Take only what you need today.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No lawyer, utility worker or benefits counselor has reviewed it, and it was not written by someone this has happened to: an AI has never sat in a cold room or opened a final notice, and cannot know what that is. The facts come from pages read on October 6, 2026. From USAGov: Get help with energy bills, and Get help paying for phone and internet service (both last updated January 13, 2026). From the federal LIHEAP office at the Administration for Children and Families: its LIHEAP page (updated September 29, 2026), its LIHEAP fact sheet, its LIHEAP questions and answers for consumers (marked current as of June 22, 2020, so some of it may be out of date, and the page says so where it leans on it), and its page on the water assistance program (updated September 30, 2026). From the LIHEAP Clearinghouse: the energyhelp.us search page, and the two notes and the national summary at the top of its state disconnect policies page (marked last updated April 2026). From the U.S. Department of Energy: How to Apply for Weatherization Assistance. From the Lifeline program’s site, run by the Universal Service Administrative Company: its front page and its pages About Lifeline, How to Qualify, How to Apply, Get Help and My Service Was Turned Off. From the Federal Trade Commission: Getting Utility Services: Why Your Credit Matters (September 2025) and Scammers Pretend To Be Your Utility Company (June 2026). The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own suggestion and not from any agency. What we did not read: any state’s law or utility commission rules, the Clearinghouse’s entry for any one state, any utility company’s own policy, any state’s LIHEAP application or income limits, the LIHEAP law itself, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline page (it refuses requests from our server), the Lifeline pages on documents, Tribal lands and the survivor benefit beyond what is said here, the water assistance guides the federal page links to, and the Federal Trade Commission’s page on saving money on heating and cooling. So the page does not describe them. We did not call any number. Two federal pages give different hours for the energy assistance referral line, and the page shows both. Programs, funding and pages change, and energy assistance money can run out during a year: check with the source before you rely on one. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick or choose is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Your browser will still remember that you visited, as it does for any page; a private window does not. It was checked by programs, not yet used by people. Scarlet Beast is not a utility, an assistance office, a law office or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].