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Winter Shutoff Protection — There Is a Veteran Category, in the Statute

Approved hardship or medically protected customers cannot be cut off for non-payment during the winter protection period. The regulator's published criteria are receiving public assistance, or income at or below 60% of state median income — and they do not mention veterans. The statute does: CGS 16-262c(b)(3) lists a veteran whose sole source of financial support is their veterans' benefit as a hardship case in its own right.

Verified August 25, 2026

What this benefit is

Approved hardship or medically protected customers cannot be cut off for non-payment during the winter protection period. The regulator's published criteria are receiving public assistance, or income at or below 60% of state median income — and they do not mention veterans. The statute does: CGS 16-262c(b)(3) lists a veteran whose sole source of financial support is their veterans' benefit as a hardship case in its own right.

What it's worth: No shutoff for non-payment through the winter protection period, once hardship is approved

  • The regulator states that a utility cannot terminate service for non-payment during the winter moratorium if the customer is approved as financial hardship or medically protected.
  • Its consumer pages give the winter moratorium as running from 1 November, with the end date stated as 1 May on the customer rights and payment assistance pages and as 30 April in the frequently asked questions.
  • The regulator states that hardship customers are those receiving local, state or federal assistance — it gives energy assistance, food assistance, cash assistance and unemployment benefits as examples — or with income at or below 60% of the state median income.
  • CGS 16-262c(b)(3) separately lists, among the statutory hardship cases, a veteran whose sole source of financial support is their veterans' benefit. That route is in the statute rather than in the regulator's published criteria, so it may not be offered unless it is raised.
  • Hardship approval is granted by the utility company or a community action agency, not by the regulator itself.
  • The regulator states that state law forbids an electric or gas company from terminating or refusing to reinstate residential service where the customer lacks the financial resources to pay the entire account and termination would create a life-threatening situation for the customer or a member of the household.
  • The Matching Payment Program helps customers with hardship status by matching their payments and energy assistance awards against past due balances, and provides year-round shutoff protection while the designated payments are maintained.
  • Two legacy arrearage forgiveness programmes closed to new enrolment on 31 October 2024, and the Matching Payment Program is now the route to arrearage forgiveness.
  • The regulator encourages hardship customers to keep paying during the protection period to avoid a larger balance when it ends.

Who is entitled to it

  • Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

From what you have told us so far, you appear to qualify.

How to claim it

Deadline: Before the winter protection period opens
  1. 1Apply through the utility or the community action agency. The regulator states in terms that it does not grant hardship status itself, so writing to the regulator delays rather than helps.
  2. 2If your veterans' benefit is your only income, say so and cite CGS 16-262c(b)(3) — it makes that a hardship case on its own. The criteria the utility publishes do not mention it, so it will not be offered to you.
  3. 3Otherwise lead with the income test or the assistance you already receive. Public assistance receipt, or income at or below 60% of state median income, is the published route.
  4. 4Raise the medical route separately if the household has someone whose life the loss of heat or power would endanger. That is a different protection with a different test and it is not seasonal.
  5. 5Get into the matching payment programme rather than relying on the seasonal moratorium alone — it carries year-round shutoff protection while the payments hold, and it is now the route to arrearage forgiveness.
  6. 6Keep paying something through the winter. Protection stops the disconnection; it does not stop the balance growing, and the bill lands whole on 1 May.
  7. 7Diary the application before 1 November. Approval is not instant and the protection only helps a customer who already has the status.
Form
Hardship application through the utility or a community action agency
File with
Your electric or gas company, or your community action agency
Annual
Claimed once a year.
CorrectionVeteran benefit guides list a veteran receiving federal veterans benefits as a hardship category for utility shutoff protection in this state. The regulator's own current criteria, read this session, do not contain one. That does not mean a veteran is unprotected — it means the door is income and public assistance, and a guide that sends a veteran to the utility citing service alone sets them up to be refused.
Worth knowingThe regulator's own pages disagree about whether the protection ends on 30 April or 1 May. Treat 30 April as the safe assumption and do not plan a payment for the last day of the window.
Known gapThe statutory hardship definition was not read. The legislature's host did not resolve for the fetch tool or for curl this session, so whether a veteran limb survives in the statute while being absent from the regulator's published criteria is an open question this record does not answer.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.