2024-2025 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) Data Match

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant (42 U.S.C. 8621) was established under Title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, Public Law 97-35. The Office of Community Services (OCS) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) administers LIHEAP at the federal level. The LIHEAP statute requires the program to collect data on beneficiary and eligible households, to report to Congress on program impacts annually, to develop performance goals, to ensure that benefits are targeted to those households with the greatest home energy need, and to assure that timely resources are available to households experiencing home energy crises. The collection of this data is authorized by 42 U.S.C. §8629(a) of the LIHEAP statute, which requires the Secretary of HHS, following consultation with the Secretary of Energy, to provide for the collection of specific information on the characteristics of LIHEAP beneficiary and LIHEAP eligible households within each state. This includes collecting information that is reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions of the LIHEAP statute if that information is not collected by any other agency of the federal government. OCS uses a number of existing data sources to develop information on households that are income-eligible for LIHEAP. These include the following: • The Department of Energy’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) (OMB Control Number 1905-0092), which provides the most accurate information available about the demographic, economic, and energy-usage characteristics of U.S. households; and • State administrative data, which provide the most accurate information about LIHEAP beneficiary households and which flow into the LIHEAP Household Report (OMB Control No. 0970-0060). Neither the RECS nor the state administrative data alone provides information about the demographic, economic, and energy-usage characteristics of LIHEAP beneficiary households. (RECS’ self-reported information on receipt of energy assistance is too unreliable for this purpose.) The only data that provides such information is that from the RECS respondents which the state administrative data demonstrates received LIHEAP benefits. The purpose of this request is to reinstate, with changes, the LIHEAP RECS Data Match to allow OCS to collect administrative household data for use in identifying LIHEAP beneficiaries that respond to the upcoming 2024-2025 RECS. The Department of Energy is planning to conduct the next iteration in 2024 and early 2025. The proposed data collection mirrors the previously approved version with updates to remove eight data elements from the prior data collection in FY 2021 that are no longer needed: household name, household telephone number, date of heating assistance, date of cooling assistance, date of crisis assistance, other assistance awarded, amount of other assistance, and date of other assistance.

The latest form for 2024-2025 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) Data Match expires 2027-09-30 and is listed under ICR 202604-0970-011.