1. Policies to Increase Access to Low-Income Energy Programs
Massachusetts LIHEAP Case Study
2019 National Energy & Utility Affordability Conference

2. Presentation Overview
LIHEAP Participation Trends
LIHEAP Outreach Analysis
Policies to Increase Access to LIHEAP
Questions and Answers 2

3. LIHEAP Participation Trends3

4. LIHEAP Recipients FY 2012 – FY 2017
Fiscal Year
Massachusetts LIHEAP
# Households
% Change
2012
200,303
2013
190,517
-5%
2014
183,009
-4%
2015
180,010
-2%
2016
164,763
-8%
2017
159,987
-3%
Change
-40,316
-20%
Source: LIHEAP Data Warehouse 4

5. Income-Eligible Served
Percent of LIHEAP Income-Eligible Served FY 2012 – FY 2017
Fiscal Year
Massachusetts LIHEAP
Income-Eligible Households
Households Served
% of Income-Eligible Households Served
2012
851,512
200,303
23.52%
2013
866,450
190,517
21.99%
2014
859,275
183,009
21.30%
2015
860,902
180,010
20.91%
2016
859,731
164,763
19.16%
2017
856,746
159,987
18.67%
Source: LIHEAP Data Warehouse 5

6. Vulnerable Populations Served
Percent of LIHEAP Income-Eligible Vulnerable Populations Served
FY 2012 – FY 2017
Fiscal Year
Massachusetts LIHEAP
% Elderly Served
% Disabled Served
% Child < 6 Served
2012
19.5%
17.0%
30.0%
2013
18.8%
16.3%
27.7%
2014
18.7%
15.7%
25.8%
2015
15.8%
24.7%
2016
18.0%
14.9%
21.7%
2017
15.0%
20.3%
Source: LIHEAP Data Warehouse 6

7. Interest in Outreach Research
Furnish in-depth information to understand:
Participation by local agency
Participation by low-income population segment
Best practices in application intake and outreach 7

8. LIHEAP Outreach Analysis8

9. Research Approach Research Deliverables Data Sources
Income-eligible population characteristics
LIHEAP recipient population characteristics
Program penetration rates
Best practices in local intake and outreach
Findings and recommendations to improve outreach
2018 LIHEAP Data File
American Community Survey
State and Local Outreach Protocols
In-Depth Interviews 9

10. LIHEAP Participation
Source: ACS (2012 – 2016) / FY 2018 LIHEAP Data File 10

11. Regional Participation
Source: ACS (2012 – 2016) / FY 2018 LIHEAP Data File 11

12. Application Processing
Source: ACS (2012 – 2016) / FY 2018 LIHEAP Data File 12

13. Denials
Source: FY 2018 LIHEAP Data File 13

14. Denials
Source: FY 2018 LIHEAP Data File 14

15. Findings and Recommendations
Key Findings
Variation in LIHEAP participation by agency
Variation in LIHEAP participation within agency service areas
Low denial rates and short application processing times correlated with high participation
Large majority of denials are due to missing documentation rather than program ineligibility
Key Recommendations
Develop strategies to reduce denial rates and improve application processing times
Identify technology enhancements to improve outreach to new applicants and retain existing recipients
Foster local partnerships to increase public awareness of LIHEAP and provide satellite application assistance 15

16. Policies to Increase Access to LIHEAP16

17. Pre-Government Shutdown
FY2019 Applications
Pre-Government Shutdown 17

18. Post-Government Shutdown
FY2019 Applications
Post-Government Shutdown 18

19. FY2019 Applications for Full Program Year

20. Reason for Denial 2018 vs 2019 20

21. Best Practices from Annual Training
Annual Conference
Color Coded Client Notifications
Partner Intake Sites
Automated phone calls 21

22. Progress and Next Steps
Over the course of heating season, incompletes trended downward.
By April, incompletes were down 7%.
With the spike in new applications at the end of the program year, incompletes increased to 3% higher that last year (Update as new data comes).
Next steps
Client portal prescreening and document upload.
Social Media ads
Increase partnerships 22

23. Questions
Ed Kiely Massachusetts LIHEAP Matthew Lyons APPRISE 23