Former civil servant Sandra Palmen is taking over responsibility for compensating parents caught up in the childcare benefits scandal on behalf of the NSC, following the resignation of Nora Achahbar as minister.

Palmen had a key role in exposing the scandal and in 2017 had urged ministers to compensate all the victims, but was ignored.

Her role as junior finance minister will also include taking responsibility for customs.

Achahbar stood down last month because of the “polarisation” within the cabinet. Her departure almost led to a cabinet crisis and two NSC parliamentarians did resign.

Thousands of parents were ordered to pay back tens of thousands of euros in allowances to meet the cost of childcare after they were deemed to be defrauding the system.

In many cases the accusation was based on minor omissions in paperwork such as a missing signature, but parents were blocked from accessing financial support, barred from applying for benefits in future years and denied any right of appeal.

Palmen wrote a memo in 2017 which stated stopping the benefits was illegal and that some parents should be compensated. It was discussed internally in 2017 but did not lead to any action and was buried. It became public in 2020 following questions from MPs.

Around 11,000 parents were also subjected to extra checks because they had dual nationality, even though municipalities have been barred from recording second nationalities in their citizens’ register to prevent such discrimination.