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Heating and Cooling Help at 60% of State Median Income — and the Queue That Decides Your Date

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps households with energy costs and runs in all 82 counties, subject to funds. A household qualifies on income at or below 60% of the state median income for its size. Priority goes to vulnerable households — those with elderly or disabled members, or a child aged five or younger — and that priority is measured in appointment dates: about 30 business days for a vulnerable household against 45 days for everyone else.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps households with energy costs and runs in all 82 counties, subject to funds. A household qualifies on income at or below 60% of the state median income for its size. Priority goes to vulnerable households — those with elderly or disabled members, or a child aged five or younger — and that priority is measured in appointment dates: about 30 business days for a vulnerable household against 45 days for everyone else.

What it's worth: Assistance with energy costs for a household at or below 60% of the state median income

  • No benefit figure is claimed. The department publishes the income test and the priority rules but not the size of an award, and states that funding is limited.
  • The 60% of state median income figure is a proportion, not a dollar amount, and the dollar equivalent moves with household size and with each year’s median.
  • The weight is set to a plausible year of energy help rather than to any published award.

Who is entitled to it

  • The help follows the home the household lives in.
  • 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: Open subject to the availability of funds — apply as soon as the need is known
  1. 1Check the income test first: the household must have income at or below 60% of the state median income for its household size. Everything else follows from that.
  2. 2Work out whether you are a vulnerable household, because it decides your appointment date rather than your eligibility. Vulnerable households are those with a member who is elderly or disabled, or with a child aged five or younger.
  3. 3A veteran with a service-connected disability reaches the priority queue through the disability limb. Say so on the application and evidence it — the programme has no veteran category to tick, so the disability is the only route to the shorter wait.
  4. 4Expect the timetable the department publishes: an appointment within about 30 business days of applying for an elderly, disabled or young-child household, and within about 45 days for everyone else.
  5. 5Gather documents for three things — residence, income and the members of the household. The appointment notice sets out what is needed, and award letters such as social security, SSI or disability determinations are named as income evidence.
  6. 6Apply even where funds look tight. The programme runs in all 82 counties but is expressly pending the availability of funds, so timing matters more here than in an entitlement programme.
  7. 7Ask in the same conversation what else the Division of Community Services runs. Energy assistance and weatherisation are administered together in most counties, and weatherisation is worth more over time than a single season’s bill help.
Form
LIHEAP application to the Division of Community Services, followed by an appointment
File with
Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Community Services, in your county
Re-file every year
Entitlement is retested annually. Missing a year costs that year.
CorrectionThere is no veteran priority in this programme and the department’s own page does not mention veterans at all. The priority classes are elderly, disabled, and households with a child aged five or younger. A veteran who is told to ask a veterans’ office about heating help will be sent back to the county human services office in the end.
Worth knowingThe priority is about the CALENDAR, not about the money: it moves a household from a 45-day appointment to a roughly 30-business-day one. In a cold snap or a heatwave that difference is the whole benefit, which is why the disability route is worth evidencing properly.
Known gapHow VA disability compensation is counted in the income test was not established this session, and it decides eligibility for most veteran households here. Nor is the award amount published anywhere that could be read. The county Division of Community Services office is the place to settle both.

Sources

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