TXU Senior Citizen Discount: What Texas Seniors Can Get

What TXU’s Senior Discount Is, and Where It Actually Comes From

TXU Energy does not run its own standalone senior citizen discount the way a grocery store runs a Tuesday discount. What exists is federal bill-payment help, plus whatever benefit your light company chooses to offer. There is no state-mandated senior discount anymore. The old state program, LITE-UP Texas, is gone: its electric discount ended August 31, 2016, when the System Benefit Fund that paid for it was depleted. Today the real help comes through the Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP), the Texas version of the federal LIHEAP, run by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs through local community action agencies that pay your light company directly. Separately, since September 1, 2017, Texas electric providers may voluntarily offer a benefit to low-income customers identified through the state’s SNAP and Medicaid database match, and the federal Lifeline program discounts phone or internet service only, not your light bill.

For lights specifically, CEAP is the main tool now. Instead of a percentage discount, it sends a payment straight to your light company toward your bill, and crisis assistance is available when you are facing a shutoff, which matters most in the summer months, when bills are highest and most dangerous for seniors on fixed incomes.

Age alone does not qualify you. Income does. But if you’re a senior on Social Security, SSI, Medicaid, SNAP, or another means-tested program, there is a strong chance you qualify without filing a separate income application, because enrollment in those programs serves as automatic proof.

LITE-UP Texas: What the Discount Covers

LITE-UP Texas is no longer available. While it ran, it was a flat statewide discount set each year by the PUCT, not a tier based on your income (10 percent in some years, 31 percent in its final year), and it was applied to May-through-August bills for households at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or receiving certain means-tested benefits. It ended for good on August 31, 2016.

To apply for light bill help, call 2-1-1 or go to 211texas.org and ask for energy assistance (CEAP) in your county. 2-1-1 will route you to the local community action agency that takes the application. The old 1-866-454-8387 line is now the Texas Low Income Discount Administrator, which handles the Lifeline phone and internet discount and questions about the electric matching program, and the PUCT does not take electric bill discount applications.

What you’ll need on hand:

• Your TXU account number (on any recent light bill)
• Your Social Security number
• Proof of income or proof of enrollment in a qualifying benefit program (a Medicaid card, a SNAP award letter, or an SSI determination letter all work)
• Your home address as it appears on your TXU account

If you’re already enrolled in Medicaid or SNAP, the process is faster, because that enrollment is accepted as proof of eligibility for CEAP. Nobody is auto-enrolled in a light bill discount anymore, though. LITE-UP Texas ended in 2016. The state still runs a SNAP and Medicaid database match that flags low-income electric customers to their provider, but participation is voluntary for the provider and the benefit is whatever that company chooses to offer, so ask TXU directly what its low-income benefit is. The CEAP application you have to file yourself.

The Critical Enrollment Window

There is no LITE-UP enrollment window anymore, the program ended in 2016. With CEAP, your local agency takes applications during the program year and stops when its funding for the year runs out, so applying early matters more than any fixed season.

This is the part TXU’s customer service representatives do not always lead with. You may call TXU asking about senior discounts and get pointed toward their budget billing or average billing options, which are tools to smooth out payment amounts month to month but are not discounts. Budget billing does not lower your total bill. The LITE-UP Texas discount does.

If your agency’s funds are out for now, call 2-1-1 anyway. Confirm your eligibility with the local CEAP agency, ask whether they keep a waiting list, and set a reminder for when their next intake opens.

What Happens If TXU Wants a Deposit

Here is a situation that comes up: a senior moves, or their account lapses after a medical event or a hospital stay, and when they try to get the lights on at a new address, TXU quotes them a deposit. For seniors on fixed incomes, a $150 to $300 deposit can mean choosing between the deposit and groceries that week.

Under PUCT rule 16 TAC 25.478, if you are 65 or older and not currently delinquent on any electric service account, you are deemed to have established satisfactory credit, which means TXU cannot require a deposit to start your service. You also clear the deposit if you were a customer of any REP or electric utility within the two years before your request, are not delinquent, and were late paying a bill no more than once during your last 12 consecutive months of service, or if you furnish a satisfactory written letter of guarantee instead of cash. Say your age and cite the rule explicitly. Do not assume they will offer it.

If TXU will not waive it and you need the lights on today, pay-as-you-go lights are the fastest path around a deposit. Pay-as-you-go plans start at 18.3 cents per kilowatt hour in the CenterPoint Energy area, based on plans listed on this site as of August 24, 2026. The tradeoff is real: on a typical month’s usage, the average pay-as-you-go plan we list runs about $36 more than the average contract plan. That is the honest cost of skipping the deposit and the credit check.

For a senior who cannot put $200 down today, that $36 per month premium is still the better math. You can keep the lights on, apply for CEAP to offset some of the cost, and move to a contract plan as soon as you want, since at 65 or older and not delinquent you are deemed to have satisfactory credit under 16 TAC 25.478 and cannot be charged a deposit.

Other Bill Help Stacked on Top

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, called LIHEAP, is a federal program that pays a portion of your light bill directly. It is not specific to TXU, but it applies to any Texas light company. In Texas, LIHEAP is delivered as the Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) through TDHCA subrecipient agencies serving every county in the state, and your gross household income generally must be at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Call 2-1-1 or use the CEAP provider list at tdhca.texas.gov to find the office for your county.

Some counties also have emergency utility assistance through local nonprofits. Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, and St. Vincent de Paul all run programs that can cover a past-due balance or a deposit on a case-by-case basis.

Stack what you can. CEAP toward the bill, CEAP crisis help if you have a disconnect notice, and local nonprofits for emergencies. None of these programs care which light company you use, so they work whether you stay with TXU or move to a no deposit lights plan somewhere else.

The Fastest Next Step

Call 2-1-1 right now and ask for energy assistance (CEAP) in your county. Have your TXU account number, your ID, and your benefit program card or letter ready. If your agency’s funds are out, ask when the next intake opens and write it down somewhere you will see it. If you need the lights on today and TXU is asking for a deposit you cannot cover, compare pay-as-you-go plans on this site and get the lights on first. The discount programs will still be there to apply to once the power is running.