Utility companies in at least eight states have to hold off on cutting power or gas to homes for much of the winter, and the first date on the calendar is Sunday, November 1. The federal LIHEAP Clearinghouse, which is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, lists date-based winter shutoff protections starting that day in Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri and Montana.
The protections end on different dates, and a few states start later. Anyone who lives in one of these states and is behind on a heating bill has a short window to understand what the protection covers.
Which eight states start on November 1?
The Clearinghouse’s state disconnection table, last updated July 20, 2026, gives each state’s window as it is written in state rules:
- Arkansas: November 1 through March 31
- Connecticut: November 1 through May 1
- Iowa: November 1 through April 1
- Kansas: November 1 through March 31
- Maryland: November 1 through March 31
- Michigan: November 1 through March 31
- Missouri: November 1 through March 31
- Montana: November 1 through April 1
Connecticut has the longest of the eight, running to May 1. Iowa and Montana both run to April 1.
Which states start later?
Five states start two weeks after that. Delaware (through March 31), Georgia (through March 15), Maine (through April 15), Massachusetts (through March 15) and New Hampshire (through March 31) begin on November 15, according to the same table.
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Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and Mississippi start December 1. Idaho, Illinois and Mississippi run through March 31, and Indiana through March 15. Minnesota’s protection is already in force, having begun October 1 and running through April 30.
Other states further down the alphabet may also begin protection on November 1, which is why the count is at least eight.
What does a shutoff protection actually stop?
A date-based protection generally bars a utility from disconnecting residential service during the window, though the rules differ from state to state on who qualifies and whether payments are required. The Clearinghouse table is a summary of those rules, not a promise that a particular household is covered.
A look at one Michigan utility shows how much the details matter. Upper Peninsula Power Company’s Winter Protection Plan runs November 1 through March 31. Customers 65 and older are protected from shutoff with no required payments. Low-income customers who qualify pay 7% of their annual bill each month to stay covered.
For someone in Michigan, that means age and income change the terms. Anyone elsewhere in the table should expect similar fine print on who is covered and what a customer has to pay.
Is the protection the same as help paying the bill?
No. A shutoff protection delays disconnection, but the bill still comes due. Households that fall behind can end up owing the whole balance when the window closes in March, April or May.
The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, is the separate program that helps pay heating bills. The Clearinghouse’s LIHEAP directory lists state and local contacts, and a household in one of the eight states can use it to find the office that handles applications in that area.
Some states not on the date-based list protect customers by temperature instead of by calendar. California, Colorado and the District of Columbia, for example, are listed with temperature-based rules only.
What should a household in these states do first?
The first move is to ask the utility whether the protection starts automatically or has to be requested. The second is to call the utility before the account is far behind, not after, and ask about payment plans and any senior or low-income terms.
Whether the protection in a given state reaches a given household, and what balance is waiting at the end of it, is the open question for the winter.
Protected through March, but who covers the balance?
A shutoff protection that ends on March 31, April 1 or May 1 leaves the unpaid bills behind it, and a missed renewal date for heating help can leave a household with no coverage while the protection runs out.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit lays out heating, cooling and home-repair help for older homeowners, with an application log and renewal calendar for tracking each program. Its contents include the 5 kinds of property-tax relief that can lower the other big bill on a house.
Track heating-help renewals with the Home-Cost Relief Kit calendar →
More Financial Reading
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- 15 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
