Guard and Reserve Call-Up Stops the Disconnection — Power, Gas, Water, Sewer, Phone and Cable
Where household income falls because the customer of record or their spouse is a Guard or Reserve member called to active service by the President or the Governor during a declared national or state emergency of war, a service provider may not disconnect. The list of services is unusually wide: electricity, gas, water, sewer, telecommunications, cable and satellite television, and it binds municipalities as well as regulated companies. Protection lasts as long as the active duty status and 30 days beyond it.
Verified August 23, 2026
What this benefit is
Where household income falls because the customer of record or their spouse is a Guard or Reserve member called to active service by the President or the Governor during a declared national or state emergency of war, a service provider may not disconnect. The list of services is unusually wide: electricity, gas, water, sewer, telecommunications, cable and satellite television, and it binds municipalities as well as regulated companies. Protection lasts as long as the active duty status and 30 days beyond it.
What it's worth: No disconnection during the call-up, plus 30 days
- This is protection from disconnection, not a discount and not forgiveness. Subsection (f) says it does not void or limit the obligation to pay for services received.
- Telecommunications protection covers dial tone line, touchtone and local usage only. Cable protection covers the most basic tier of television service only.
Who is entitled to it
- You have served, so this is the protection to reach for on any future call-up.
- The section names the customer of record OR the spouse of the customer of record, so it is a household protection.
- You are 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.
How to claim it
Deadline: Apply as soon as the call-up reduces household income- 1Notify each provider separately and say the right thing. Subsection (b) frames the application as notifying the provider that you need assistance because household income has fallen as a result of a household member's call to active duty status in the reserves or National Guard.
- 2Check the call-up against the definition before relying on it. Subsection (g)(1) reaches a member of the National Guard or the military reserve called to active military service by the President of the United States or the Governor of this State during a time of declared national or state emergency of war. An ordinary training obligation is not that.
- 3The reduced income is part of the test, not an afterthought. The definition is written as a household whose income IS REDUCED because of the call-up, and the provider may ask for periodic verification both of the active duty status and of the reduction.
- 4Keep the verification handy, because it can be asked for more than once. Subsection (c) allows periodic verification of both limbs for as long as the protection runs.
- 5Diarise the end. Protection lasts as long as the emergency active duty status continues and for 30 days after it ends, and subsection (e) requires you to tell the provider within 10 days of returning.
- 6Pay what you can throughout. The debt keeps accruing and lands when the shield lifts.
- 7If a municipal utility says the section does not apply to it, read subsection (a) back: the definition of service provider expressly includes municipalities.
- Form
- No prescribed form — notify the service provider that assistance is needed
- File with
- Each service provider separately, with the Public Service Commission behind the regulated ones
- Periodic recertification
- Confirmed at intervals rather than annually.
Sources
- authority · statute26 Del. C. §118 — continuation of service for activated Reserve and National Guard military personnel: the service provider definition including municipalities, the application by notification, periodic verification, the deployment plus 30 days duration, the 10-day return notice, and the Qualifying Customer definition in subsection (g)
- operating · statute26 Del. C. §117 — the general residential disconnection rules read alongside §118: the 14-day written notice in the heating or cooling season, the contact attempts, the deferral where an occupant's health would be affected, and the required referral to charitable and governmental assistance programmes
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.