Are You Eligible for Vermont Fuel Assistance This Heating Season?

The sights and smells of fall are starting to wane as Vermont stick season arrives—and with this transition comes the firing up of furnaces, heaters, and woodstoves state-wide.

We all experience an increase in living costs to heat our homes in fall, winter, and spring. The heating season is long in Vermont! Many folks are eligible for Vermont Fuel Assistance, a program administered by the Economic Services Division of the Department of Children and Families. Vermont Fuel Assistance can provide you financial support for a wide variety of home-heating sources from electric heat or propane to wood or pellets for burning. Homeowners and renters alike can apply for Vermont Fuel Assistance- and if your home heating costs are included in your rent, you may still be eligible as well!

If you are eligible for or are currently receiving 3SquaresVT food benefits, you may also be eligible for Vermont Fuel Assistance. You can even apply for both programs at the same time with one application. Or, if you are currently receiving 3SquaresVT food benefits but not fuel assistance, there is a short, supplemental application to apply for just Vermont Fuel Assistance.

You must reapply for Vermont Fuel Assistance every year, and there is not a certain deadline for the application. This means you could apply in October, November, December or possibly even later into the new year for benefits. If you apply in the middle of a heating season, you may receive a pro-rated benefit for that current season. Once approved, benefits are allotted to you in a variety of ways depending on the type of heating method you use.

Think you might be eligible? You can contact our 3SquaresVT team at the Vermont Foodbank to learn more—we can answer your questions, screen you for eligibility, or assist you with a Vermont Fuel Assistance and/or 3SquaresVT food benefit application: call us at (855) 855-6181, text VFBSNAP to 85511, or email 3svt@vtfoodbank.org.