Georgia LIHEAP cooling assistance sets 2026 income limits up to 77,071 dollars for a household of five

What LIHEAP income limits are in Georgia for 2026

Georgia opened applications for its Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program cooling benefit for 2026, a program most people call LIHEAP, run by the Georgia Department of Human Services. A household qualifies if its income sits at or below 60% of the median income for Georgia families, a limit the state sets by household size. A household of one qualifies at or below 34,549 dollars a year. A household of five qualifies at or below 77,071 dollars a year. These are the LIHEAP Georgia income limits for 2026 that decide who receives help paying a summer electric bill.

When households could apply for cooling assistance

The Georgia Department of Human Services announced the program was open in a press release dated April 6, 2026. That date is only when the release went out. The program itself opened five days earlier, April 1, 2026, for Georgians age 65 and older and for medically homebound residents. Everyone else eligible could start applying May 1, 2026. A household with an existing energy bill credit of 1,000 dollars or more does not qualify for help. Applications are handled first come, first served, through local Community Action Agencies, the local offices that take and process each application.

Why summer electric bills are rising this year

The average summer electric bill in Georgia is projected to rise from 790 dollars in 2025 to 891 dollars in 2026, an increase of 101 dollars, 12.8%, according to a report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate. The same report projects a national average summer bill of 792 dollars in 2026. The bill projected for Georgia sits 99 dollars above that national figure, a gap this site calculated from the 2 numbers the report states. Nationwide, the current fiscal year 2026 federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program sits at 4.1 billion dollars, an amount the National Energy Assistance Directors Association says is not enough to meet need.

When temperatures break records, utility bills often do too.

Mark Wolfe, Executive Director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Source 3.

How Georgia compares on utility disconnections

Utilities disconnected residential electricity service 13.4 million times nationwide in 2024, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. Georgia accounted for 458,435 of those electric disconnections, a count close to the 454,815 disconnections in Alabama and far above the 68,659 in Connecticut and the 83,044 in Maryland, according to testimony the National Energy Assistance Directors Association submitted to Congress. Utilities also disconnected residential natural gas service 1.7 million times nationwide in 2024, and Georgia accounted for 134,421 of those gas disconnections, according to the same testimony.

How to apply for cooling assistance in Georgia

Georgia residents apply through their local Community Action Agency, and applications are accepted until funds run out or the season closes for the year. A household must fall within the LIHEAP Georgia income limits for 2026 and provide the required eligibility documents to be considered.