Feds Trim Paperwork for Low-Income Energy Aid Data
Published Date: 2/13/2026
Notice
Summary
The government is asking states to share updated info about families getting help with their home energy bills for 2024 and 2025. They’ve made the data collection easier, cutting the paperwork by about 30% compared to 2021. This helps make sure energy aid reaches the people who need it most, and they want your thoughts by April 14, 2026.
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 1 costs, 1 mixed.
States must share LIHEAP household data
State LIHEAP grant recipients (51 state governments and the District of Columbia) are asked to provide household-level LIHEAP beneficiary data to support a RECS data match covering fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The data match is intended to identify LIHEAP recipients who responded to the 2024 Residential Energy Consumption Survey; public comments on the collection are due April 14, 2026.
Paperwork burden cut by about one-third
The collection request reduces estimated time per state response from 24 hours to 16 hours, a 33 percent reduction compared to the 2021 request. The total annual burden is estimated at 816 hours across the 51 respondents.
Eight personal data fields removed
ACF proposes to eliminate eight data fields from the prior request: household name, household telephone number, date of heating assistance, date of cooling assistance, date of crisis assistance, other assistance awarded, amount of other assistance, and date of other assistance. ACF says these items were duplicative or not essential to determining residential energy consumption and expenditures.
Optional extra data items allowed
State grantees may optionally provide additional data items if already in their databases: tenancy (own or rent), type(s) of fuel used, and whether heat is included in rent. These items are optional and only requested when available.
Secure transfer and client-waiver sharing
OCS plans to protect client privacy by using a secure internet site and File Transfer Protocol for file transfers, and notes that LIHEAP application client waivers allow grant recipients to share information with OCS and its contractors. The collection will use existing LIHEAP reporting systems and waivers to permit sharing.
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