Opinion ID: 516409
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: multiple disregards

Text: 75 Once it is acknowledged that Sec. 657(b)(1) permits multiple pass-through payments, there can be no question that it also requires disregarding each of those multiple pass-throughs in calculating an AFDC family's benefits. The only way to make sense of the statute as a whole, is that multiple payments and multiple disregards must be seen as inextricably intertwined. Any other interpretation would defeat the very purpose of the statute and be nonsensical. See, e.g., Griffin v. Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U.S. 564, 575, 102 S.Ct. 3245, 3252, 73 L.Ed.2d 973 (1982) ([I]nterpretations of a statute which would produce absurd results are to be avoided if alternative interpretations consistent with the legislative purpose are available.). The statute itself expressly mandates such multiple disregards when multiple pass-throughs are appropriate: 76 [T]he first $50 of such amounts as are collected periodically which represent monthly support payments shall be paid to the family without affecting its eligibility for assistance or decreasing any amount otherwise payable as assistance to such family during such month. 77 42 U.S.C. Sec. 657(b)(1) (emphasis added). 78 While the Secretary argues that a strictly literal reading of Sec. 602 does not permit multiple disregards, as we have discussed supra, even the Secretary himself does not in practice endorse such a myopic position. In sum, we believe that the essence of the multiple pass-through provision in the statute includes multiple disregards.