UC paid by voucher?

I have been studying the contents of the Welfare Reform Act and I have found, towards the end of it, section 144 I think, a paragraph that makes provision for UC to be paid by vouchers instead of cash. I see no mention of this on rightsnet, and have not read or heard any discussion of it anywhere else. I’m not sure how to interpret it - does it mean all of a person’s entitlement to UC can be paid by vouchers, or just certain elements of it? I would like to hear what other people know about it.
    The last time any benefits were paid by vouchers, to my knowledge, was in the 1980s before the social fund was invented. Income Support claimants who applied for grants to replace household items (or get household items when they moved into unfurnished accommodation, as I did when I was given a housing association flat) were commonly given vouchers made out to perticular shops. (Particular shops ‘specialised’ in giving quotes to claimants for DWP grants, in order to capture their custom.) This was widely abused, with some shops often taking the vouchers from claimants then charging them more than the quote they’d originally given for the goods. They counted on claimants scratching together the extra money rather than insisting on getting a new, accurate quote, or going to another shop and starting all over again. Claimants were also forced to accept substandard goods as the DWP tended to give grants to the shops with the cheapest quotes, regardless of whether the items were fit for use, or whether the shops had any in stock at that price.
    People who can’t remember the benefits system this far back, may remember the more recent issue there was around asylum seekers being paid in vouchers.
    As far as I am aware, there is provision for social fund grants to be paid in the form of vouchers made out to particular shops, but I have never come across that being done since the mid-90s. (That concerned a client of mine who had been given a CCG in voucher form which was made out to Argos. She sent it back because at that time Argos was scabbing on the Liverpool Dockers Strike and she wasn’t prepared to give them her custom on principle!)

I think the voucher provision is for the Social Fund replacement where Local Authorities will be able to issue vouchers instead of cash.

My recollection is that it may be part of the (still undecided) way in which the child care element of UC might be paid. Also that it could be a “keeping the option open” even if ther was at present no intention to use it.

I thought it might be a ‘keeping the option open’ clause. I also thought about it relating to the replacement to the social fund, but there is nothing to indicate it relates to local authorities in any way. I would have thought the DWP would have no input into local authority decision making on this, since the replacement for the social fund will not be a national scheme.
  I am interested in finding out government intentions, since such a clause is open to misuse.

Hi

Forthe record it is Schedule 1 paragraph 6.

Shaun