ELKHART — This cold winter weather has a lot of people cranking up the heat. But as the mercury rises, so do the bills.

For some people, it's becoming increasingly difficult to cover those costs. So more people are turning to social service agencies for help.

The Salvation Army office in Goshen works with families in need during the home heating season. It’s seen a jump in those in search of help this winter.

"Just checking our records quickly this morning, we're seeing more people than we did this time last year, so the numbers are up,” said the Salvation Army’s Gail Hendershott.

They provide an energy assistance program for people in eight nearby townships. It is geared to those who have received a utility disconnect notice.

“We're only in a position that we can help when they're at a disconnect status,” explained Hendershott. “We'd put ourselves out of business if we were helping everybody with their bills, just that were behind. We only see people when they are at a crisis state."

Their clients’ bills vary.

"We've seen disconnect bills of $80 and we've seen them for $2,000, so there’s a wide disparity in when NIPSCO issues disconnect bills,” Hendershott said.

She says clients turn to the agency for a variety of reasons, whether it’s job layoffs, mounting or unforeseen medical bills, or being a retiree, living on a fixed income.

Ruth Howard and her husband fit the last category.

''Last month I had a $400 bill for my electric bill and gas bill, and they paid it in full,” Howard told WSBT News. “We are both senior citizens. We live on a fixed income, and there's times that we just cannot pay it."

For more information on local agencies that provide heating assistance, go to News Links.