Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – It was billed as a way to cushion the blow for Indonesia's poorest of the poor. But efforts to compensate 15.5 million families with cash to offset steep hikes in fuel prices have instead triggered violence.

Angry mobs have trashed homes of local officials. Old people have died standing in queues and a woman committed suicide after hearing she was not poor enough to qualify.

"Some people are frustrated because they... see their neighbors who have more money receiving the funds, so they become stressed and angry," Wardah Hafidz of the Urban Poor Consortium, a group fighting to eradicate poverty, told Reuters. "What they need is a long-term scheme that will give people a chance to acquire jobs, a place to stay and food."

The government increased the price of gasoline, diesel, and the kerosene poor Indonesians use for cooking by more than an average 100 percent on October 1 to cut crippling energy subsidies.

It has set aside 4.65 trillion rupiah for compensation, giving the poorest families in the country 300,000 rupiah each to cover the next three months. Recipients must earn less than 175,000 rupiah a month to qualify.

But many residents erupted with anger after finding out they were not registered at village and district government offices or were ineligible when they lined up to collect the cash.

This week, the Media Indonesia newspaper said angry residents in Central Java province alone had destroyed the homes of 143 village chiefs. Hundreds of residents went on a rampage in West Java's Indramayu district, destroying a village hall, it added.

In the Sumatran province of Jambi, a neighborhood unit head was stabbed to death by an aid recipient who claimed he had been extorted while an elderly woman jumped into a river near Yogyakarta to her death after failing to get cash, the Jakarta Post newspaper also reported.

Last week, local media said three ailing elderly women died while queuing for cash.

Scared officials A spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conceded there had been problems with the registration process but insisted the scheme has been a success.

"When people are angry, I think that's part of the democratic process. The Indonesian people have the right to be angry. It's just part of the social and economic mechanism, especially when there is a glitch in the system," Andi Mallarangeng said.

Officials launched the compensation package around the time the government raised fuel prices, a move that has led to price hikes in food staples and transportation in a country where nearly half the population live on less than $2 a day.

Cash is being distributed by village and neighborhood unit heads following a census by the statistics bureau.

But some have said the money had not been fairly distributed and in some cases complained that "administrative fees" had been charged, newspapers have quoted residents as saying.

Local television stations have shown various incidents of vandalism at village offices, as well as long lines. Up to three million families forced officials to include them on lists for cash compensation, the statistics bureau said. It was unclear if the families had been eligible or not.

"Many of our officials are afraid to go home because their houses were attacked or they were threatened," the Kompas daily quoted statistics bureau chief Choiril Maksum as saying. He said his office had annulled 40,000 recipients because they were not deemed as poor.

Many community heads had quit over fears of being attacked, local media said.