New Jersey Approves Arrearage Forgiveness Plan

More than 50,000 low-income families in New Jersey will soon get a break on their utility bills. The state Board of Public Utilities on February 18 approved a program aimed at giving low-income households a one-time chance to erase the debt they've run up on their utility bills.

The program will allow customers enrolled in the state's Universal Service Fund (USF) energy assistance program a chance to have those bills forgiven if they start paying their monthly bills in full and do so for an entire year. The program begins in April for those households who have been automatically enrolled in the USF.

The so-called arrearage forgiveness plan, modeled on similar programs in other states, is available to the 135,000 people enrolled in the USF program, which limits monthly utility bills of those customers to no more than 6 percent of their monthly income.

State officials said 40 percent of the people enrolled in the program – or about 50,000 – have accrued significant unpaid utility bills. Each year in New Jersey, utilities write off $45 million in bad debts because they cannot collect overdue bills from customers.

On March 4, the Board of Public Utilities issued an order regarding the establishment of an arrearage payment program for the Universal Service Fund.

New Jersey Star-Ledger

Page Last Updated: September 12, 2007