East Orange Mayor Ted R. Green, left, and PSE&G regional public affairs manager Joseph McQueen discuss assistance for residents who need help paying their utility bills.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — Back with another virtual town hall meeting on Feb. 16, East Orange Mayor Ted R. Green was joined by PSE&G regional public affairs manager Joseph McQueen to discuss free assistance to help East Orange residents pay their utility bills. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many people who have been negatively affected financially due to job loss and working fewer hours. Identifying this immense struggle, the city of East Orange is tackling this issue by spreading utility payment assistance awareness to residents.
According to Green, twice as many customers as previously are seriously behind on their bills since the pandemic began. Thus, McQueen identified three programs and the assistance that’s available for residents who are suffering.
“There are three main programs that you could take advantage of. One program that they have for assistance is the Universal Service Fund Fresh Start. Another program is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and then, lastly, there’s also Payment Assistance for Gas and Electric,” McQueen said at the meeting. “With those programs, what’s most important is really the Universal Service Fund Fresh Start. With this program, once you’re eligible and you qualify, whatever balance you may have had, you’re able to have that forgiven. It’s not a situation where it’s only limited to the COVID window. If you had balances that may have been accruing, if you’re eligible for the program, you’re able to have that past balance, regardless of the amount, forgiven. So these are three programs where, if you have a balance on the utility bill or if there are any concerns, you’d definitely want to either see the shared information under the city and you can always reach out to PSE&G directly in our collections department at 800-357-2262 and have a conversation with one of our collection reps.”
For more information about USF Fresh Start, visit https://tinyurl.com/2p8ahc9k. For more information about the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, visit https://tinyurl.com/3kscrta2. For more information about Payment Assistance for Gas and Electric, or PAGE, visit https://njpoweron.org/page/.
McQueen also discussed the importance of residents resuming payment arrangements they may have discontinued during the pandemic, as many cities and states are beginning to lift their moratoriums on utility shutoff and/or collection activity due to nonpayment as a result of COVID-19. McQueen urged residents to contact PSE&G to avoid collection activity.
“Speaking to the moratorium just with the state, which was between November up until mid-March, PSE&G withholds any collection activity on residents who may be struggling on their utility bill,” McQueen said. “What the moratorium being lifted means for residents of East Orange, it’s important to realize that we won’t send anyone out for collection activity until after a shutoff date. But more importantly, what I think one should be able to do is look at the utility bill. If you do have a shutoff notice, I would advise you to reach out to PSE&G and see if you can make a payment arrangement. Right now, PSE&G has a really lenient policy with payment arrangements where you can put $0 down and have almost up to 24 months to repay that balance. That’s one way to hold off on any kind of collection activity.
“Secondly, I talked about the programs that you could apply for, such as USF, LIHEAP or through PAGE,” he continued. “If you are applying for assistance through one of these programs, even if you don’t know your status yet, it’s important to reach out to us and tell us you’ve applied for assistance. We’ll walk you through a couple of screening questions to see where you are in the process of things. But most importantly, once you notify us, that holds off collection activity. I really want to stress the importance that if you’re behind (paying for) a utility and having issues, you should be making that call to make that payment arrangement with our group, but, even more importantly than that, let’s reach out to these agencies and let’s get a handle on some of the support and see exactly how we can get your account balances down.”
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