The economy may be out of recession, but Kansas City Power & Light is seeing a growing number of its residential customers unable to pay their electric bills &mdash; thousands of them for the first time. On Tuesday, the utility said it was taking steps to help them. </p><p>KCP&L is launching a program called Connections that, among other things, will give customers who can&rsquo;t pay a monthly bill an extra 30 days. </p><p>The utility also is dropping a requirement that customers with a past-due account can&rsquo;t join the KCP&L budget billing program, which averages out a customer&rsquo;s bills throughout the year to avoid seasonal spikes. The utility also for the first time will allow a past-due amount to be paid over a year&rsquo;s time.</p><p>KCP&L said despite signs of the economy stabilizing, many families were struggling to pay their bills and were not seeing a recovery in their personal finances. That includes about 16,000 customers who previously always paid their electric bills, but who have had past-due accounts this year.</p><p>&ldquo;We are finding more customers that are delinquent for the first time,&rdquo; said Katie McDonald, a KCP&L spokeswoman.</p><p>Though the gross domestic product rose 3.5 percent in the third quarter, unemployment is at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent and is expected to climb further. As a result, most utilities have seen a rise in delinquent accounts, including first-timers, and are scrambling to do something. </p><p>Missouri Gas Energy said it also had seen a spike in customers who, after paying on time for the past five years, were past-due on their bills. This summer the utility offered an arrangement that allowed them to catch up by paying 60 percent of the amount owed and paying the balance over three months. </p><p>Westar Energy, based in Topeka, also saw a jump in delinquent accounts earlier this year among those who had previously paid on time. Westar offered some more lenient arrangements to prevent them from losing electric service. </p><p>Wess Henderson, executive director of the Missouri Public Service Commission, said regulators had been letting utilities know what other utilities were doing with past-due accounts. </p><p>&ldquo;They all understand that writing off an account isn&rsquo;t good for the customer, the utility or the ratepayers,&rdquo; he said. </p><p>This time of year, customers in Kansas and Missouri also are protected by their states&rsquo; cold weather rules. The rules bar service cutoffs when temperatures dip below specified levels, and they offer some bill-paying arrangements.</p><p>KCP&L said its approach was to add more flexibility and options for customers, and to make them available year round. </p><p>The utility is also spreading the word about a new pilot program for low-income customers that will provide $50 off a monthly electric bill for a year or more. The program can take 2,000 customers, but only 300 are participating so far. The Salvation Army is managing it.</p><p>KCP&L also is sponsoring more than a dozen &ldquo;resource fairs&rdquo; to explain what is available to help customers pay their bills &mdash; and reduce them by using less energy. For example, one KCP&L program provides free programmable thermostats. </p><p>Customers will have more options, KCP&L officials said, the sooner they let the utility know that they can&rsquo;t pay their monthly bill.</p><p>&ldquo;The message here is that there are things available,&rdquo; said McDonald, the utility spokeswoman.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">Resource fairs </span></strong><br /> KCP&L is holding free sessions in Kansas City, St. Joseph and nearby towns such as Sedalia, Mo., and Paola, Kan., to tell customers all the programs that are available to help them pay their utility bills and reduce their energy use. A schedule of the resource fairs is available at 800-526-3348 or <a href="http://www.kcpl.com/">www.kcpl.com/</a> connections. The next two in the Kansas City area:</p><p>&bull;Southeast Community Center</p><p>3601 E. 63rd St.</p><p>Kansas City</p><p>3-6 p.m. Monday</p><p>&bull;Matt Ross Community Center</p><p>8101 Marty St. </p><p>Overland Park</p><p>3-6 p.m. Nov. 16</p><p></div>