The City of Austin's Plus 1 Fund provides emergency utility bill financial assistance to customers experiencing extreme hardships such as medical illness or sudden job loss. In 2009 the City of Austin doubled to $300,000 the amount of funding made available annually for this program. Beginning in fiscal year 2009, City of Austin employees were given the option to donate to the Plus 1 Fund through the City's annual Combined Charities Campaign, which raises money for local and regional charitable groups. Additionally, utility customers have the option to donate to the Plus 1 Fund when they make their monthly utility bill payments. Plus 1 funding is distributed to customers by more than a dozen social service agencies including Travis County Family Services and Meals on Wheels.

The City of Austin's Plus 1 Fund provides emergency utility bill financial assistance to customers experiencing extreme hardships such as medical illness or sudden job loss. In 2009 the City of Austin doubled to $300,000 the amount of funding made available annually for this program. Beginning in fiscal year 2009, City of Austin employees were given the option to donate to the Plus 1 Fund through the City's annual Combined Charities Campaign, which raises money for local and regional charitable groups. Additionally, utility customers have the option to donate to the Plus 1 Fund when they make their monthly utility bill payments. Plus 1 funding is distributed to customers by more than a dozen social service agencies including Travis County Family Services and Meals on Wheels.

This data set displays the number of households benefiting from Customer Assistance Program (CAP) for each fiscal year.

The City of Austin has one of the most generous Customer Assistance Programs in the nation. Utility bill discounts are a key component of the program. Discounts are provided to customers who are already receiving benefits through a variety of federal, state, county, or city assistance programs.

Under the program, qualifying Austin Energy customers receive a waiver of the $10 monthly electric customer charge; are exempt from paying the portion of the community benefit charge that supports the Utility Bill Discount Program; and receive a 10% discount on their kWh usage charge.

Austin Water customers also receive a discount on the water/wastewater customer charge as well as a volumetric discount on a customer’s water usage. Watershed Protection provides a 50% discount on the drainage fee. Public Works under a separate qualification waives the transportation user fee.

This dataset supports measure EOA.G.4 of SD23

Data Source: Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing (CCB) System

View more details and insights related to this measure on the story page: https://data.austintexas.gov/stories/s/g4mj-r352