Oddly enough I'm able to change it from user options. So now it says:
Note: Your minimum payout was customized to 0.01048576 BTC under 'My Eligius'.
This doesn't correspond to what you said. Just confusing I guess. Anyways, doesn't really matter too much. I've always been paid by the pool

It's a configurable option in case that isn't apparent by now.
I think 0.01048576 is the absolute minimum. It used to be lower, but wz or wz/Luke-Jr raised it a bit.