AUGUSTA — An improved payment plan for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program will help low-income households keep warm next winter by allowing MaineHousing to purchase more heating oil without spending more money, MaineHousing Director Dale McCormick said Thursday.

“After a year’s experience with our discount payment plan, we are fine tuning it to achieve even more benefit for LIHEAP customers without added costs for taxpayers,” McCormick said.

This past winter heating season, 2006-07, MaineHousing implemented a new discount payment plan. Prior to that, oil dealers were paid the retail cash price for the oil they delivered to LIHEAP customers.

Under the new plan, any oil dealer could participate in LIHEAP by offering their LIHEAP customers a Discount Off the Retail cash price, or a set amount over the wholesale price, called "margin over rack ."

“By switching from the retail cash price to the DOR and MOR plans, we were able to provide more than 240,000 additional gallons of heating oil for LIHEAP customers for the same dollar amount,” McCormick said. “That’s an additional $550,000 worth of oil at no added cost to taxpayers.”