Connecticut Administrative Code › Title 16a - Planning and Energy Policy › 41(b) - Energy Assistance › Section 16a-41(b)-10 - Application process

Current through July 10, 2024
(a) Service
			 provider agencies and their designees shall use a standard application form
			 provided by the Department.
(b) All
			 individuals shall be allowed to file an application.
(c) Service provider agencies and their
			 designees shall take simultaneous applications from individuals for any energy,
			 utility, weatherization or conservation loans, audits, assistance, or service
			 made available by the Commissioner and administrated by the service provider
			 agency.
(d) Service provider
			 agencies shall take whatever actions are necessary to insure that elderly and
			 disabled individuals are not denied equal access to the program due to their
			 age or physical condition, including, but not limited to, the provision of home
			 visits where necessary.
(e) Service
			 provider agencies and their designees shall attempt to locate interpreters for
			 applicants whose primary language is not English.
(f) Applicant households who are denied
			 energy assistance due to missing documentation and/or incomplete applications
			 shall provide the required information/documentation within ten (10) days from
			 the applicant household's receipt of the notice of ineligibility. Should the
			 applicant household fail to provide the required information/documentation
			 within the allotted time, and if assistance is still being sought, the
			 applicant household will be required to reapply, documenting the most recent
			 four (4) week period, or six (6) calendar months if someone in the applicant
			 household is self-employed.
(g) As
			 a condition of initial and continuing eligibility, the applicant or service
			 recipient shall make himself or herself available for a personal interview at a
			 location designated by the service provider agency.
(h) The application or service recipient
			 shall cooperate with the Department's fraud early detection (FRED) program by
			 completing all required forms, cooperating and participating in home visits by
			 FRED investigators, responding to interview appointments and by making all
			 requested records or information available to the Department. The applicant or
			 service recipient who does not cooperate, as determined by the Department, may
			 be ineligible until they cooperate.
(i) The applicant or service recipient shall
			 verify all information pertaining to eligibility as required by the Department
			 or its agents. Verification shall include, but not be limited to, a household's
			 included income or excluded income as defined in Section
			 16a-41(b)
			 -1. Denial or discontinuance of assistance shall result from failure to provide
			 verification of information deemed by the Department or its agents to be
			 essential to the determination or redetermination of eligibility.
(j) The applicant or service recipient or his
			 or her duly authorized representative shall have access to his or her
			 application file during the regular business hours of the service provider
			 agency which received his or her application.
(k) The applicant or service recipient shall,
			 within twenty-eight (28) days, excluding state designated holidays, from the
			 date of application or reapplication have a decision rendered that eligibility
			 has been approved or that eligibility has been denied or
			 discontinued.
(l) The service
			 provider agency shall mail a notice of approval or denial to the applicant or
			 service recipient. Such notice shall be postmarked within twenty-eight (28)
			 days, excluding state designated holidays, of the date of
			 application.
(m) If the primary
			 heating fuel is deliverable, the service provider agency shall issue payment to
			 the vendor within thirty (30) days of receipt of a bill. If the primary heating
			 fuel is provided by a utility, payment will be issued directly to the vendor,
			 providing that verification of the service recipient's account number has been
			 provided.
(n) A service provider
			 agency or its designee shall provide each applicant with a notice of applicant
			 rights and service availability as part of the application process. The notice
			 shall contain a listing of the dates by which applications will be received and
			 bills must be presented for payment in the Energy Assistance program. All
			 program participants shall comply with those scheduled dates for the submission
			 of applications and presentment of bills for payment.