Call before the shutoff date

The letter has a date on it. It may say final notice, it may ask for a sum you do not have, and it can read like the day the lights go off whatever you do. It is not that yet. What the date decides is smaller and more useful to know: which kinds of help are still easy to get. The easiest one, a payment plan, is easiest before the date and much harder after it.

Call the utility before the shutoff date, tell them you cannot pay it all, and ask what payment plan or hardship program they can put you on.

Before the date

Many people arrive at that first move. In their experience, a customer who calls before the final date is usually offered a payment plan or a hardship arrangement, which they describe as standard practice for keeping a customer connected. The same accounts say these arrangements are rarely advertised, so you have to ask for them by name. Some people add the version for a payment that bounced: call straight away, explain why it failed, and ask to go back on a plan, even if the monthly amount is higher than you hoped. One person’s suggestion is to ask the utility, on the same call, for its own list of organisations that help with bills.

Why the date matters comes from one person’s account. They asked for a plan after the power had already been cut, and they were refused outright: the full reconnection fee came first. Before the date, the conversation is about keeping you connected. After it, the conversation can be about what it costs to connect you again.

Do not wait for a phone call from the utility. One person says utilities do not ring before they disconnect and you have to watch your account yourself; another says local providers, co-operatives in particular, send letters and may phone shortly before. It differs by utility and by state, so treat the letter as the warning. One person’s plain point is the one to hold on to: ignoring those letters leaves you fewer options.

Write down who you spoke to, the date, and exactly what was agreed. That is this page’s own advice, because a plan made on the phone is easy for either side to remember differently. And the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, a legal-aid group for utility customers in that state, advises speaking to a customer service person rather than accepting the plan an automated phone menu offers.

A plan has a cost, and it is worth seeing clearly. One person warns that an extension can let each new month’s bill pile on top of the unpaid old ones, so the debt grows faster. A plan works when you can pay the plan and the next bill too. Whether a plan protects you from a second shutoff if your income stays unsteady is a question this page leaves open; ask the utility that question directly, on the same call.

The money that exists for this

Many people point at the same door: government help with energy bills. In the United States that means LIHEAP, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which each state runs through local agencies, and 211, the free phone line where a person looks up what help exists where you live. People are clear about the paper that opens these doors: the shutoff notice itself. One person’s advice is to take it to the local human services or welfare office and apply for a grant that may pay the bill for a few months, bringing your lease and bank statements. The shelter help described further down asks for it too. Keep the notice. It is the document these offices ask to see.

Here is where LIHEAP stood when this page was written, in September 2026, and part of it may have changed by the time you read it. Its money for the year that ran to 30 September 2026 reached the states in full, the last part in April after delays. For the year that starts on 1 October 2026, the White House asked Congress to end the program, a House committee voted in June to fund it, and Congress had not finished deciding. So the program in your state may be open, may open late, or may run out, and 211 or your state’s energy-assistance office will know which. One more fact matters most when your date is close. The federal law behind LIHEAP says a state’s crisis help must give an eligible household some assistance that resolves the crisis within 48 hours of applying, and within 18 hours if the situation is life-threatening. When you apply, say that you have a shutoff notice, and give the date on it.

People are honest about the limits. A former caseworker corrected the idea that this is free money for anyone: the eligibility rules are strict, and an application can mean showing six months of income and your payment history. One person warns that the office may go through your finances in fine detail, and one says an application can take a week or more. Some people say state help often pays enough to stop the shutoff but not the whole debt, so you may need a second source for the rest. One person says applying in person can speed it up. Another warns that welfare offices may be shut at weekends, so go on a weekday, as early as you can. And one person cautions that letting a bill go sixty days unpaid in order to qualify for aid can mark your credit.

Behind the government door are smaller ones. Some people say that smaller local churches and interfaith groups keep emergency funds for utility crises, often unadvertised, and help people whether or not they belong. One person describes how the money moves: some pay the utility by cheque, and some can pay over the phone, which can get the power back quicker. Other people, each in a single suggestion, name between them the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, Sikh gurdwaras, fuel banks, town social services and local mutual-aid groups. And one person says some homeless shelters help with utility bills without advertising it: the shelter asks for the overdue bill and the notice, you meet a caseworker, and the shelter pays the utility directly. The edges are real. One person says the process takes real effort and proof of need, and another warns that church help can come with intrusive questions. One person’s whole approach fits in a line: if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Some help frees money rather than giving it. One person’s suggestion was to apply for food assistance straight away, so the grocery money can go to the bill, and another’s was to use a food bank for staples. One person says the county benefits office can check a household for food help, health coverage and help getting back to work.

Holds that stop the clock

Some households can pause a shutoff outright, and you find out by asking. One person says that if a child is medically vulnerable, a doctor can write a letter saying electricity is needed for their health, and that letter may make the utility turn the power back on and allow more time to pay, 21 days in their example. Another person says a baby in the home, someone on oxygen, or medical equipment that needs power can trigger a temporary hold, in their account 30 days at a time and up to three times a year. These are state rules, and they differ. In Pennsylvania, for example, the state’s utility legal-aid project says a certificate signed by a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner can stop a shutoff for up to 30 days when someone in the home has a serious illness or a condition that needs the service. The catch: you need a doctor who agrees the person is vulnerable and is willing to write to the utility.

Winter is the other pause. Some people say that some places ban cutting off power or heat in the cold months; one gives November to April as an example, and another says these protections usually end in March. They can come with conditions. One person, about another person’s shutoff, says that state’s winter rule covered households under 250 percent of the federal poverty line, and that the person had probably qualified but had not given the utility their income details in time. Pennsylvania’s rule, checked for this page, protects households at or below that line from 1 December to 31 March. Another person describes a rule tied to the weather, where a utility cannot disconnect, or must reconnect, when the forecast drops below freezing within the next 24 hours, and they add that it may apply only where electricity is needed for heating, and can lapse when the temperature rises again. One more person says some states forbid shutting off power to a home with young children or other vulnerable people in it.

The move that follows is simple. Before the date, tell the utility who lives in your home, what you earn, and whether anyone depends on power for their health, and ask which protections you qualify for. Whether your own state protects a home with young children, and what exactly counts as medically vulnerable, are questions this page could not settle; your state’s rules decide, and 211 or a legal-aid office can tell you.

If the power is already off

The warning at the top of this page comes first. After it, people have practical ways to keep people warm while the money gets sorted out.

Some people describe the same idea: shrink the space you are heating. Choose one room, and inside it make a smaller warm space, such as a tent, a blanket fort or layered bedding, and keep the youngest and the oldest people in it, because a small space holds body heat and a large cold house does not. One person suggests making it a camp game for the children, with bedding, body heat and sofa cushions. Another adds layers of clothing, hot water bottles, and time in warm public places, such as a supermarket cafe.

One change this page makes for a baby under one year old. Loose blankets, quilts and pillows in a baby’s sleep space can suffocate them, so the US Safe to Sleep campaign’s advice is to dress the baby for the temperature of the room, with a wearable blanket or an extra layer of clothing instead of anything loose, and to keep the sleep space clear. It also warns that too many layers can overheat a baby, and that a sofa or its cushions is not a safe place for a baby to sleep. A hot water bottle filled with hot, not boiling, water is for older children and adults, never in a baby’s bed.

One correction is worth keeping. Someone suggested candles under a flowerpot as a heater, and was corrected: a candle makes very little heat, far less than a heater or even a human body. One warning: never leave an open flame burning near small children. And the CDC’s reason for using battery lights instead of candles in a power cut is fire. Another correction is about fans. A fan does not multiply heat. It moves the heat that is already in the room, and it adds none.

One person’s suggestion is to keep food outside in the cold. The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says not to: the sun can thaw frozen food even on a very cold day, the outdoor temperature changes hour by hour, and animals get to it. Its alternative uses the same cold. Fill buckets or empty milk jugs with water, leave them outside to freeze, and put that ice in the fridge, the freezer or a cooler. According to the CDC, a closed fridge keeps food safe for about four hours without power, a full freezer for about 48 hours, and a half-full one for about 24.

If the power is still on but only just, one person’s survival list was to cut use hard: shower at a gym, spend the working day at a library, run the appliances at night if rates are lower then, and, if it comes to that, take a roommate or move somewhere cheaper.

This page does not cover what to do when the house gets dangerously cold overnight before any help arrives, or how to care for a sick small child with no power. Those are not problems for more blankets. The CDC’s advice for a home that is too cold, or too hot in a heat wave, is to go to friends or a community shelter, and a sick baby or toddler in a cold house is a reason to call a doctor today (NHS 111 in the UK), or 911 in the US or 999 in the UK if they are getting worse; elsewhere, your local emergency number.

Who this page is not for

If the account is not really yours, because someone opened it in your name, a parent while you were a child or anyone else without your consent, then the payment plan above is the wrong tool. Some people say to check that a debt is actually yours before paying anything. One person was told plainly, when about to agree an upfront payment and a monthly plan on an account opened in their name when they were a minor was told that paying could be taken as accepting the debt, and that the route was a police report and proof of their age when the account was opened. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission’s IdentityTheft.gov builds an identity-theft report and a recovery plan, and the page here called Freeze it at all three covers freezing your credit. Whether to report a family member is a hard call people argued about, and this page does not make it for you.

If the bill is high because housemates who have since left ran it up, chasing them is a separate problem. Some people said to ask them for their share anyway, since the worst answer is no; two said you would be ignored or blocked; and one person warns that small claims court can be costly, and hard to collect from someone with no money or assets. The call to the utility is still how you keep the power on while you chase it.

If you are in the UK, the shape is similar and the rules are different. Citizens Advice says a supplier in England must give you the chance to pay the debt through a payment plan before it disconnects you, that disconnection is rare because the supplier will usually offer a prepayment meter instead, and that between 1 October and 31 March a supplier cannot disconnect someone of State Pension age who lives alone or only with other pensioners or children under 18. To disconnect you without an agreement, a supplier has to apply to a court for a warrant to enter your home. Citizens Advice has separate guidance for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is the free place to ask. Elsewhere, the first move still holds, and the programs named on this page do not apply.

And if this is not one bad month but every month, the call still buys time, and the problem underneath is a different one: the page here on the free energy audit, and the one called Help exists, are written for that.

Both calls, to the number on the bill and to 211, are free, and both are worth more before the date than after it.