Eligible Michigan homeowners or renters have until Friday to apply for a credit to help with energy bills. 

Michigan Treasurer Rachel Eubanks said “time is running out” to apply the state’s Home Heating Credit, a program available to eligible low-income, deaf, disabled or blind persons as well as disabled veterans and seniors.

The credit, she said, is meant to provide the Michigan residents who qualify relief with heat bills as the state moves into fall and to ensure that more of their money is directed for other critical needs.

“If you haven’t already claimed the credit and are eligible to do so, please do not wait to apply,” Eubanks said in a Tuesday statement.

The state Treasury Department has been processing Home Heating Credit applications since January. To date, the average credit is $253, the office said. 

Through the end of August, treasury has processed more than 206,000 credit claims for a total of $52 million, Ron Leix, a spokesman for the department said in an email. 

Over the last five years, around 277,000 claimants each year have received the credit, with an average credit of $193.

The Home Heating Credit allocation is usually based on a comparison between an individual’s standard credit allowance or their heating costs as well as their total household resources – the total taxable and nontaxable income of both spouses or of a single person maintaining a household. 

Leix said the state’s Treasury Department works with nonprofits and community groups to increase access and awareness of the program. Eligible applicants, he said, usually apply for the credit when they file individual income tax returns during tax season from the end of January through mid-April. 

After the Friday deadline, next year’s opportunity to apply will open up when individual income tax season begins in early 2023. 

The Home Heating Credit form is available online. For more information about the program and eligibility, visit the Home Heating Credit website.