The "Basic Rules" document lists the Formal Competition Payoff Scheme. That scheme is ideal for formal competitions: it punishes the player who carelessly discards to let a big hand win, while encouraging the classical tactic of letting an opponent win with a small hand in order to prevent another opponent from winning a big hand ("tactical alliance"). It gives the players the most room to exercise their skill, and also serves to prevent collusion to some extent.
In casual family play, the players may not necessarily be at such a high skill level, and for them it may be more important that the game is fun and exciting. The Uniform Payoff Scheme described here serves to enhance the fun and excitement factor (at some sacrifice of the skill factor), by encouraging the players to be more aggressive in building bigger hands. It also has the advantage of being much simpler and easier to teach. In a casual family playing environment, especially among novices, you may consider using the Uniform Scheme instead of the Formal Competition Scheme.
And that's it!
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© 1997, 2007 Alan KWAN Shiu Ho