Funds on the way to pay for utility arrears, but those eligible must apply

Government funding to help low-income customers erase past-due electric and gas bills will begin flowing to more than 10,000 PSEG and National Grid customers next month, but experts say up to half of eligible customers might miss out because they haven’t signed up for help.

New York’s budget includes $250 million to forgive the arrears of hundreds of thousands of customers across the state, with the help of other grants and utility funds.

LIPA will receive $9.8 million from the state fund and plans to fund the rest through a reserve fund for uncollectable debt and other grants, an official said this week. About $25.5 million in arrears for 11,200 customers would be erased by the program, LIPA said.

The arrears apply to balances accumulated from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through May 1, 2022.

At a news briefing Friday, activist groups and Assemb. Michaelle C. Solages (D-Elmont) said they were working to increase awareness for arrears forgiveness. For PSEG customers, those who qualify for the Household Assistance Program or the Emergency Rental Assistance program and have COVID-related arrears from those dates are eligible. Customers can call PSEG at 800-490-0025 to see if they are eligible.

Ian Donaldson, a spokesman for the Public Utility Law Project, a utility watchdog group, said data suggests that up to half of eligible customers don’t apply for the assistance and might miss out.

"It's unfortunate that there hasn't been a major effort to let people like my family, who are on the thinnest of ice, know that such a vital program exists," said Darinel Velasquez of Westbury, in a statement from PULP and the Long Island Progressive Coalition, an activist group, that are working to increase awareness.

Solages, the deputy majority leader of the Assembly, said she expects to introduce legislation next year that will increase the scope of customers who are helped by the programs.

“With the financial hit from COVID and inflation, people’s dollars are not going as far,” Solages said. “More people are struggling now. I think next budget cycle we’re definitely going to have to look at ways to support not only low-income but middle-income families. These families are struggling, too.”

LIPA vice president Justin Bell last week said a moratorium on shut-offs remains in place for low-income customers. “We are conducting outreach to any eligible customer not yet enrolled” in the assistance programs, Bell told LIPA trustees last week. “We’re going to get as many as we can into the program by December 31,” when program eligibility ends.

About 120,000 residential PSEG customers were late paying their bills, amounting to $160 million, as of the end of May.

PSEG in July sent letters to 46,000 customers not eligible for the low-income programs to encourage them to get on a payment plan for as little as $10 a month to avoid a shut-off of power. PSEG has sent dozens of agents to customers' homes to warn them of potential shut-offs and to encourage payment plans.

“It’s a shame that we have to clean up the mess created by the greed of private utility companies like National Grid and PSEG that continue to exploit marginalized communities,” Monique Fitzgerald, climate justice organizer at the Progressive Coalition, said in a statement from Friday’s conference. She noted the arrears forgiveness program “has the potential to help so many working families, but they have to know it exists.”

PSEG Long Island, in response, noted its role in the public-private partnership to operate the grid, adding, “There are no shareholders to absorb the cost of unpaid bills as suggested by LIPC. Any unpaid bills would raise the cost for all other customers in our system.”

The Progressive Coalition on Aug. 24 will host a host a workshop on the program at the First Baptist Church of Riverhead, 1018 Northville Tpke. in Riverhead, at 5:30 p.m.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.