(a) Annually, the Secretary of Human Services or designee shall determine an appropriate amount of funds to be set aside for expenditure for the crisis fuel assistance component of the Home Heating Fuel Program. The Secretary or designee shall also adopt rules to define crisis situations for the expenditure of the home heating fuel crisis funds, and to establish the income eligibility requirements of households for receipt of crisis Home Heating Fuel Assistance, provided that no household shall be eligible whose gross household income is greater than 200 percent of the federal poverty level based on the income of all persons residing in the household. To the extent allowed by federal law, the Secretary or designee shall establish by rule a calculation of gross income based on the same rules used in 3SquaresVT, except that the Secretary or designee shall include additional deductions or exclusions from income required by LIHEAP.

(b) Crisis fuel grants shall be limited per winter heating season to one grant for households that are income-eligible and have received a seasonal fuel assistance grant and meet all eligibility requirements for crisis fuel assistance, or to two grants for households that are not income-eligible for seasonal fuel assistance and meet all eligibility requirements for crisis fuel assistance. (Added 1995, No. 158 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. May 10, 1996; amended 2009, No. 1 (Sp. Sess.), § E.324.5; 2009, No. 88 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. April 29, 2010; 2011, No. 75 (Adj. Sess.), § 113, retroactively eff. June 1, 2010; 2013, No. 50, § E.324.9; 2017, No. 85, § F.5, eff. June 28, 2017.)