Indonesia is to pay the equivalent of $10 a month to about 15.5m impoverished households for three months in an effort to soften the political impact of a fuel price rise expected in early October.

The move, which officials said might become the foundation of a social security system in the world’s fourth largest nation, is thought to be unprecedented for Indonesia.

Anti-poverty efforts in the archipelago have historically taken the form of subsidies guaranteeing cheap prices for commodities such as fuel and rice or micro-credit and employment schemes.

The move comes as Jakarta prepares to begin increasing fuel prices as early as October 1 by what officials say will be “at least” 40-50 per cent this year to reduce a fuel subsidies bill expected to cost the government up to $14bn (€11bn, £8bn) this year.

Officials stressed on Monday that neither the timing nor the amount of any increase had been firmly decided, although a senior minister said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had told ministers to be prepared for a price rise in “early October”.

The officials said no decision had been taken on whether the cash payments scheme would be repeated after the end of December. Sofyan Djalil, information minister, said some cabinet members thought “a social security payment like that . . . is a good idea”.

Jakarta is already facing criticism that the compensation scheme could turn into a target for Indonesia’s notoriously corruption-ridden bureaucracy.

“It’s a populist policy,” said Wardah Hafid, co-ordinator of Indonesia’s Urban Poor Consortium, an anti-poverty group.

“But it’s very stupid.  . . . It will only spread the corrupt practices.”

The concerns focus on the speed at which the compensation scheme is being rolled out in an effort to make it available before fuel prices rise.

World Bank experts last month told Indonesian officials that most similar Latin American schemes had taken six months to prepare. But Indonesia is likely to have rolled out its scheme in about six weeks.

Indonesian officials concede that the hasty schedule could lead to problems.

However, they say the fuel subsidies bill, which has ballooned out of control owing to surging global oil prices, leaves them little choice but to move quickly.

Mr Djalil on Monday night said that Jakarta would use the Indonesian post office to disburse some Rp4,800bn ($475m, €387m, £261m) allocated for an initial three-month payment of Rp100,000 per month to about 15.5m households.

The government hoped using the postal system rather than what Mr Djalil called “the bureaucracy” would increase transparency and accountability.

Because the initial payment would cover three months Jakarta would also have until the end of the year to “look all over the programme, to see what its weaknesses are and how to improve it”, should it be repeated.

Mr Yudhoyono, who is visiting the US for this week’s UN summit and to meet investors, said on Monday that a simple distribution system would make it easier to avoid payments being diverted by corrupt public officials.

Additional reporting by Taufan Hidayat