The number of Rhode Islanders who have lost utility service for not paying their bills this year has jumped 12 percent over last year, setting an all-time high, according to the most recent information released by the state.

The figures also show that the biggest jump in shutoffs occurred in households that do not receive federal heating assistance, suggesting that more middle-class families are having trouble paying heating bills.

Utility companies in the state turned off electricity and natural gas service to a total of 25,054 customers through last month, according to data from the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, the most since the state began tracking in 1997.

Shutoffs among households that received no federal heating assistance jumped 14.6 percent, while shutoffs among customers that did receive assistance increased 3.4 percent.

“People are having a harder and harder time paying home energy bills, and it’s not just the poorest of the poor,” said John Howatt, senior policy analyst for the National Consumer Law Center in Boston. “Utility affordability problems are creeping slowly but surely into the middle class,” he said.

Utility shutoffs generally rise in years in which rates increase, and fall when rates decline, according to a Providence Journal analysis of shutoff figures and rate changes since 2002.

The figures offer an indication of how many people are having trouble paying their utility bills. They do not represent the actual number of households currently without utility service, since many have had service restored.

Utility rates were pushed to unprecedented levels this year following steep increases in the price of natural gas, electricity and crude oil last fall.

One year ago, New England Gas raised natural-gas rates by about 17.3 percent, or $20.83 a month for a typical heating customer. National Grid raised electricity rates in October 2005 and in January, adding a total of $18.18 a month to the bill of a 500-kilowatt-hour customer, a 29-percent increase. National Grid now owns the Rhode Island operations of New England Gas.

Rates have moderated somewhat. The state Public Utilities Commission approved a 3.9-percent decrease in National Grid’s electricity rates as of Sept. 1, and a 5.4-percent decrease in its natural gas rates as of Nov. 1. On Thursday, National Grid proposed another 6.6-percent decrease in electricity rates to go into effect in January.

But even with those decreases, rates remain high compared with previous years. If the PUC approves the pending rate reduction, a typical electricity customer next year will pay $872 for the year, which is $221, or 34 percent, more than that customer paid in 2002, according to calculations by The Journal. Under current gas rates, a typical gas customer can expect to pay $1,654 next year, which is $424, or 35 percent, higher than it was in 2002.

The state allows utility companies to shut off service to a customer if the delinquent balance rises above $500. However, the service of customers who are considered “protected” cannot be terminated between Nov. 1 and April 15.

A protected customer is one who is elderly, handicapped, seriously ill, receiving unemployment compensation, receiving federal heating assistance or qualifies as a financial hardship, according to state rules. The state defines a financial hardship customer as one having an income at or below 75 percent of the Rhode Island median income.

This past year, protected customers received extra help from the federal heating assistance program. The state received about $25 million from the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program this year, compared with about $15 million last year, according to Janice McClanahan, a spokeswoman for the state’s Office of Energy Resources.

And there was more money available for those who didn’t qualify for federal heating assistance. The Good Neighbor Energy Fund collected about $960,000 in donations from individuals and corporations last year, which was 75 percent higher than the $550,000 collected the previous year. The fund provides grants to households in a temporary crisis, or whose income is too high for federal heating aid.

Even so, shutoffs have set a record.

“It’s a simple math question,” said Henry Shelton, coordinator of the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket. The organization lobbies on behalf of low-income families. “It’s not that there’s a change in peoples’ willingness to pay their bills,” he said. “It’s that they don’t have the money to pay the high prices.”

While a new state-sponsored heating assistance program is set to begin in July, Shelton said it is limited, and doesn’t solve the bigger problem of energy prices becoming less affordable to a larger number of people.

“It’s just a lame program” he said. “It’s a little bit better than what we have now, but in no way is it the solution to the problem.”

Shelton said more and more people who have never sought aid before are asking his organization for help. And he sees the problem only getting worse, now that one company — National Grid — supplies both electricity and natural gas throughout Rhode Island.

“Someone’s got to put the red light up and say this is an emergency, this is a catastrophe,” he said.