About one in six U.S. households is already behind on its utility bills as winter nears, and the unpaid balances add up to nearly $23 billion. Shutoffs have followed missed payments on a vast scale: in 2024, utilities cut off residential electric service about 13.4 million times and natural gas service about 1.7 million times. Both the arrears total and the shutoff counts appear in the winter heating report of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), dated September 14, 2026, and they are the association’s own estimates rather than counts published by a regulator or a utility.
A national arrears total with no stated method
NEADA’s winter heating report packs the headline into one sentence: about one in six U.S. households is behind on utility bills, with residential utility debt approaching $23 billion. The report’s wording is “approaching,” and the headline figure rounds it to about $23 billion. Nothing in the document names a data source or a method for either number, and it gives no as-of date beyond the report’s own.
That silence limits what the total can be used for. The report does not say whether the debt is counted before or after payment plans and assistance already applied, and it offers no breakdown by state or utility. NEADA’s text never states a typical balance per behind household, and dividing the total by the share of households would be guesswork the report does not support.
Disconnections counted as events, and counted in 2024
The shutoff numbers are older than the arrears total. NEADA states that in 2024, utilities disconnected residential electric service approximately 13.4 million times and natural gas service approximately 1.7 million times because of unpaid bills. The wording counts disconnection events, not households, and the report does not say how many separate households those events represent.
The record also stops at 2024. Nothing in the report gives 2025 or 2026 shutoff totals, so the pairing on the page is an arrears estimate for this fall set beside disconnection counts from two years earlier. What the counts do establish is the stated cause: unpaid bills are given as the reason for every disconnection tallied.
Mark Wolfe’s warning and the two requests attached to it
The report’s named voice is Mark Wolfe, who directs NEADA. He is quoted warning that families are heading into the cold months “with no room left in their budgets.” Two requests follow. It urges Congress to raise LIHEAP funding from $4 billion to $7 billion, and it says utilities should provide “meaningful affordability protections” when they seek approval for grid upgrades and other investments, citing the effect of rate increases on vulnerable customers. It also refers to reduced federal energy assistance as part of the backdrop.
Every figure in that paragraph is NEADA’s. On the federal side, the LIHEAP page run by HHS lists no appropriation for the current year; the newest funding detail it points to is the FY 2019 awards. The $4 billion description of current funding therefore rests on the report alone, and NEADA is the group urging the increase, so the arrears estimate and the funding request come from the same advocate.
What LIHEAP says it covers for a household already behind
HHS’s LIHEAP brochure lists three kinds of help: bill payment assistance, energy crisis assistance, and weatherization and energy-related home repairs. State, tribal and insular-area grantees run the program. The brochure says the LIHEAP program in a household’s own community decides whether income qualifies, so income thresholds differ by location, and neither the brochure nor NEADA’s report supplies a national cutoff.
For a household with a past-due balance, the brochure lists the paperwork a local office may ask to see. That includes recent utility bills, a recent pay stub or other proof of current gross income, and documentation of income from sources such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, pension funds or disability. Proof of address, household composition, Social Security information and proof of citizenship or residency are on the same list.
The referral line, and what applying costs
The brochure sends applicants to the National Energy Assistance Referral project, which refers callers to local LIHEAP offices, or to the state’s LIHEAP office directly. The toll-free number is 1-866-674-6327, answered Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time, with an email address of [email protected]. The brochure describes the referral service as free.
What the report and the federal pages leave unanswered
NEADA’s report contains no sentence on shutoff moratoriums, seasonal shutoff rules or utility payment plans, and the two HHS pages read for this story carry none. Those terms are therefore not covered by anything cited here, and neither is the question of whether a household behind on bills faces a shutoff in a given month.
The only dated, attributed arrears figures in the record are NEADA’s, published September 14, 2026, with Wolfe as the named official. The HHS pages supply what LIHEAP says it covers and how to reach the program, and they do not confirm the funding totals NEADA uses.
Applications for bill help leave a paper trail
NEADA’s arrears estimate and the bill payment and crisis assistance that HHS describes for LIHEAP leave one practical job unfinished: keeping the past-due notices, income proof and application dates for a household behind on utilities in one place. Each application, whether for heating or cooling help or for home-repair help, comes with its own paperwork and a date when it comes up again.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit includes heating, cooling and home-repair help, plus an application log and renewal calendar for recording each application and when it comes due again.
Start a winter application log and renewal calendar before the next past-due notice →
This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the numbers and quotations were checked against NEADA’s September 14 winter heating report and HHS’s LIHEAP page and brochure.
