As oil prices soar, more NH residents fall behind on their heating bills

High oil prices are teeing up a cold and stressful winter for many Granite Staters.

“If we didn’t get heat assistance, for instance, we wouldn’t make it at all,” said Per Garp, a retired farmer from Loudon, during a roundtable event with heating assistance providers and Congressman Chris Pappas Monday in Concord. “… We’re going to be cold, maybe even freezing. We need more.”

At a conference table at the headquarters of the Community Action Partnership Belknap-Merrimack Counties, the providers talked about what they have heard from residents as applications begin to come in across New Hampshire for this year’s heating assistance program. 

Inflated by pressure from the wars in Iran and Ukraine, the cost of oil is hitting Americans at the gas pump and, as cold weather sets in, inflating heating bills, too. In the Northeast, where reliance on heating oil is heavier than in the rest of the U.S., the impact on residents is likely to be especially severe: The average cost of a season’s worth of heating oil is projected to rise more than 31%, or $548, over last year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association. That brings the average cost of heating a typical home throughout the winter to about $2,300.

Meanwhile, though the amount of assistance available to qualifying New Hampshire residents has increased since last year, it has not kept pace. The maximum amount of assistance a household could receive this year is $2,500, up $323 or about 15% from last year, according to figures provided by the New Hampshire Department of Energy. 

The average amount an applicant receives is approximately $1,200, said Terra Rogers, energy services director for Southwestern Community Services. 

Already, some of New Hampshire’s community action partnerships, which administer a heating assistance program for qualifying New Hampshire residents, have seen an uptick in new registrants, staff said. 

“We’ve seen a lot of people that are working families that are applying who are brand new,” said Rogers. Colleagues have commented on their surprise over the number of people submitting first-time applications this year, she said. 

“There was just a chat that went around the office, like, ‘Have you had a lot of new clients?'” she said. “And the next person says, ‘Yeah, we have. It’s been really high this year.'”

Assistance is available for households with incomes that range from $0 to approximately 60% of the median household income in New Hampshire, according to the New Hampshire Department of Energy. In 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau listed New Hampshire’s median household income as $99,031.

Assistance funding is not always enough to keep recipients warm, providers said on Monday. And some residents, they said, are scared. 

Given that assistance does not always cover a full delivery, and a single winter will typically require multiple fuel deliveries per household, some recipients are already carrying debt on their accounts, according to Kristin Bertrand, director of energy and area resource centers at Community Action Partnership Belknap-Merrimack Counties. 

The number of inquiries the agency has received this year from people concerned about overdue balances is higher than it was at this time last year, Bertrand said.

Rogers said she knows elderly program participants who keep their thermostats at 57 degrees throughout the winter because they cannot afford more fuel.

“All they can use is fuel assistance. For the whole season, that’s all they have, so they try to stretch their dollar, so they keep it really low. That’s quite cold, in the winter in New Hampshire,” she said. 

The high price of heating coupled with other ballooning costs eat up a fixed income, Garp said. 

As prices rise, “We have barely more money to pay with. … It doesn’t work,” he said. 

Garp pointed to the high cost of health insurance and medications as other factors straining his family’s budget, calling on Pappas to help lower Medicare premiums and other healthcare costs. 

This year’s sharp increases add to the financial stress many New Hampshire residents have carried over from last year’s heating season, providers said. They called for more funding and timely disbursement of federal dollars for the program, which is funded by the federal government and administered by states and local agencies. 

“Energy costs affect everything,” Bertrand said. 

Pappas said he was concerned about the impact of rising fuel costs on New Hampshire. He pointed to legislation he introduced this fall to increase funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program by redirecting $1 billion in funding for President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” and legislation that seeks to allow states to increase eligibility for heating assistance dollars to include those making up to 75% of that state’s median income. 

Heating assistance directors said they want residents to be aware that they may be eligible for more help than they realize. 

“So many people that do have an income and are working actually are eligible,” said Heather Amer, chief operations officer at Southwestern Community Services. “So we try to let people know: If you’re nervous, just apply.”