Low Income Utility Assistance

Take Advantage of ComEd's Smart Assistance Manager (SAM)

These programs lend a hand when you need it most:

• Catch Up and Save  - helps eliminate a past due balance and provide stabilized monthly billing. 
• Fresh Start Services  - offers energy management tools, financial assistance programs, payment arrangement options, and energy-efficiency offerings.
• Your Neighbor Fund  - a giving campaign that helps support households experiencing a hardship. Funded by donations from ComEd employees, this campaign helps families pay their ComEd bill.

Explore all the ways ComEd helps customers at: ComEd.com/SAM.

Link-Up, Lifeline & Universal Telephone Service Assistance Program (UTSAP)

For those low-income residents having difficulty paying for phone service, a program called Link-Up, Lifeline, and Universal Telephone Service Assistance Program (UTSAP) can help. These programs provide financial assistance to qualified low-income households to help them obtain and maintain basic local phone service. They are administered by a not-for-profit corporation, the Universal Telephone Assistance Corporation (UTAC), under the auspices of the Illinois Commerce Commission. Two of the programs are federally funded, and the third is funded by voluntary contributions from existing telephone customers.

Link-Up, Lifeline, and UTSAP provide financial assistance to participants in one or more of the following government assistance programs: National Free School Lunch Program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), or federal public housing.

Benefits to eligible individuals and households include up to $40 off the cost of telephone installation and a monthly credit off the cost of basic local phone service.

To apply for assistance, individuals should contact their local phone company:

• AT&T Customers: 888-256-5378
• Verizon Customers: 800-483-4000
• Customers served by other local telephone companies should contact their company directly

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

DuPage County Community Services can help low-income households by assisting with energy bills and furnace repairs. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) aids qualified low-income households with energy bills through direct financial assistance. An overdue bill or disconnect notice is not required to receive LIHEAP assistance.

For more information, contact DuPage County Human Services at: 

421 N. County Farm Road

Wheaton, IL 60187

Phone: 630-682-7000