Massachusetts calls it HEAP, and it opens Oct 1

Massachusetts Heating Assistance: HEAP

Q: What is heating assistance called in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts runs the federal program as Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), administered by Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. 18 different program names appear across the states compiled here, which is why a search for the federal acronym often misses the page a household in Massachusetts actually needs.

Q: When can a household apply for heating assistance in Massachusetts?

Applications run October 1 to April 30. The agency's own words: "HEAP helps low-income individuals and families with the cost of heating their homes during the winter season. The online application opens annually on October 1 for the upcoming heating season."

Q: Does Massachusetts also stop a utility disconnecting heat in winter?

Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities sets a separate rule on that, and its short form is: November 15 to March 15. In several states the two are linked, because receiving assistance is itself what switches the disconnection protection on. The winter shutoff page for Massachusetts carries the rule.

Q: Is there help making the house cheaper to heat in Massachusetts?

Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities runs Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), which is the companion to the bill payment side. Its own words: "Households that are eligible for the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) are eligible for weatherization services."

Q: Is heating assistance in Massachusetts a state program or a federal one?

Both, in the way that matters to a household. The money is a federal block grant; Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities decides what it is called, when it opens, who is eligible and what it pays. Across the states compiled here that produces 18 program names and 8 different opening months, so the answer is a state answer even though the funding is federal.

Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities runs the federal heating grant in Massachusetts. Applications run October 1 to April 30. Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities takes applications online, in person at the heap agency in your area and by mail.

HEAP

What it is called here

Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)

Oct 1

The season opens

through Apr 30

60%

The income limit

of state median income

Yes

Crisis component

a separate, faster application

The answer

Heating assistance in Massachusetts, in one screen

HEAP

Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)

Run by: Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities
The season: Applications run October 1 to April 30.
The income test: The test is household income at or below 60 percent of the Massachusetts estimated state median income, measured against the state median income, so the qualifying figure moves with what households in that state actually earn.
How to apply: Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities takes applications online, in person at the heap agency in your area and by mail.
By phone: (800) 632-8175

Learn about Home Energy Assistance - HEAP, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities

HEAP helps low-income individuals and families with the cost of heating their homes during the winter season. The online application opens annually on October 1 for the upcoming heating season.

Learn about Home Energy Assistance - HEAP, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The benefit pays a portion of the cost of the household's primary heat, including oil, electricity, natural gas, propane, kerosene, wood and coal, and is paid directly to the heating vendor; the agency says the amount changes each year with the federal allocation to Massachusetts.

Who qualifies

The HEAP income test in Massachusetts

The test is household income at or below 60 percent of the Massachusetts estimated state median income, measured against the state median income, so the qualifying figure moves with what households in that state actually earn.

Income is counted gross rather than after tax, and the household is everyone living at the address rather than everyone on the lease. Most states count the last thirty days or the last twelve months, not last year’s tax return, which means a household whose hours were cut in October can qualify in November on a year that looks too high on paper. Apply and let the agency do the arithmetic rather than ruling yourself out.

Household income cannot exceed 60% of Massachusetts’ estimated State Median Income.

Learn about Home Energy Assistance - HEAP, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

If you cannot wait

The crisis route in Massachusetts

There is no separate crisis fuel application; the HEAP application is also the application for HEARTWAP, which repairs or replaces a failed heating system.

A crisis application and a regular one are different transactions on different clocks. A household with a disconnection notice, an empty tank or a dead furnace should start with this one, say plainly on the call what the emergency is, and have the notice or the delivery ticket to hand.

HEARTWAP provides emergency heating system repair and replacement services to low-income households.

Learn about Home Energy Assistance - HEAP, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A white residential propane tank standing on a concrete pad beside a mown yard, with bare trees and a wooded ridge behind it — For a household on propane or heating oil the benefit usually arrives as a delivery to a tank like this one rather than as a credit on a bill, which is why a state that pays vendors directly will ask which dealer you use before it asks anything else. “Propane Tank - panoramio”, Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0

The other half

Whether Massachusetts also stops the utility disconnecting

November 15 to March 15

The two are separate: a heating grant is money and a shutoff rule is a restriction on the company. In several states an approved grant application is itself what satisfies the filing the shutoff rule asks for, which makes applying worth doing even for a household that thinks the grant will not cover much. The full rule, with Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities’s own words, is on the Massachusetts winter shutoff page.

Next winter

Making the house cheaper to heat in Massachusetts

Massachusetts runs Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). It pays for the insulation and the air sealing rather than the bill, which is the only part of this that lowers next winter as well as this one.

Households that are eligible for the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) are eligible for weatherization services.

Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) in Massachusetts

In most states a household approved for the heating grant is automatically income eligible for weatherization, so the same paperwork does both. The waiting list is usually long and the work is usually free, which is a combination worth joining early rather than in the week it is needed.

Massachusetts heating assistance questions

What is heating assistance called in Massachusetts?

When can a household apply for heating assistance in Massachusetts?

What is the income limit for HEAP in Massachusetts?

How does a household apply in Massachusetts?

What happens if the heat is about to go off this week in Massachusetts?

Does Massachusetts also stop a utility disconnecting heat in winter?

Is there help making the house cheaper to heat in Massachusetts?

Is heating assistance in Massachusetts a state program or a federal one?

Icicles hanging in a row from the eaves of a low brick apartment building against a clear blue sky, with a balcony rail at the right edge — A renter whose heat is bundled into the rent can still qualify in most states, and is among the least likely to apply. Where a state sets its income test against the federal poverty level rather than state median income, the line can sit twenty points apart for the same household. “Icicles on the eaves of a house in Quebec City”, Wilfredor, CC0

Heating assistance in other states

Massachusetts winter shutoff rulesWhether Massachusetts bars a winter disconnection, and what a household has to do.Winter shutoff rules by stateWhether a window, a forecast or a filing decides it where you live.Heating oil and propane pricesWhat the fuel costs this week in the states that report it.Firewood cutting permitsWhere a permit lets a household cut its own firewood.Heating assistance in every stateThe program names, the opening dates and the income tests side by side.

Massachusetts read September 23, 2026 from Learn about Home Energy Assistance - HEAP, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, linked above. Opening dates, income limits and benefit amounts are set each program year and the agency can change them mid season, so the page linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the heating assistance hub.