Texas stops helping poor families pay their electric bills

[TexasTowelie]

Texas will no longer help low-income families pay their electric bills. Lite-Up Texas, a program that offered discounts to hundreds of thousands of poor Texas families over the years, has run out of money and the discounts ended on Aug. 31, the Public Utility Commission confirmed.

Though observers expected the money to run out after lawmakers declined to extend the program's funding source three years ago, advocates are concerned that long-time beneficiaries will be blindsided when their assistance vanishes.

“We’re very worried,” said Lynda Ender, a program director at Senior Source, a nonprofit that provides services to elderly folks in Dallas. “We expect to have a flood of calls.”

About 700,000 households relied on the program in 2015, according to the Public Utility Commission, with state subsidies reducing their electric bills from 25 percent to 31 percent.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article99805702.html

[Gothmog]

1. It is tough living in Texas as times

This is so very wrong

[duncang]

2. That sucks

Friend of ours from Jr high time lost her husband to cancer 10 years back. Her son died in a car wreck and all her siblings have passed away. She developed cancer and has a hard time getting around. But has a house and wants to stay there is just barely making it. Her husbands family sends her money every month, we help out when she can't make it, but with this she will be losing the house.