THREE former MLAs who either did not stand or lost their seats at the last Assembly election received more than £1,000 in travel expenses in the months following the vote.
The UUP's Danny Kennedy, Alex Attwood of the SDLP and Caitríona Ruane of Sinn Féin were paid expenses for constituency travel in the period from April to December last year.
The Assembly said that a "small number of payments were made in error" and has confirmed that former MLAs were not entitled to receive such expenses after the election. It has indicated that it is seeking reimbursement.
The specific details of the claims, the exact date on which they were filed and how much has been repaid remains unclear, as there is no further breakdown of the payments.
A spokeswoman for the UUP said that Mr Kennedy has repaid the amount, which was an overpayment of mileage, in full.
An SDLP spokesperson said: "When the Assembly Finance Office advised a number of months ago of an over-payment of travel allowance, which is paid automatically, the over-payment was returned immediately.
“In any case, the travel allowance is returned to the Department of Finance every month along with the MLA salary."
Ms Ruane did not respond to a request for comment.
Ms Ruane, a former education minister, announced in January 2017 that she would not be seeking re-election in South Down.
In the election two months later, Mr Attwood failed to retain his seat in West Belfast, as did Mr Kennedy in Newry and Armagh.
Figures covering the eight months after the election show that Ms Ruane was paid £561.80 in constituency travel expenses, Mr Attwood received £187.47 and Mr Kennedy was paid £257.96.
Mr Kennedy also received £46.23 from an annual allowance for travelling to the Assembly.
No other MLAs who stepped down or lost their seats at the election - and were not co-opted back to Stormont later - received payments under either category of travel expenses, according to the figures.
Upon losing his seat, Mr Kennedy relinquished his role as deputy speaker of the Assembly, for which he would have received an extra salary.
Ms Ruane resigned from her £55,000-a-year post as principal deputy speaker in October, saying she never anticipated that the election of new speakers would take so long.
Mr Attwood is entitled to a £6,000 annual allowance as a member of the Assembly Commission, which oversees the administrative running of Stormont. He remains in that post because the institutions are suspended.
"Those MLAs who were not returned or did not stand in the March 2017 election were not entitled to receive payments for either constituency or Assembly travel after the election," said an Assembly spokeswoman.
"A small number of travel payments were made in error during the year.
"Not all of the monies paid in error have been recouped as yet but the full amounts will be included as part of the year-end report for members' (and former members') expenses."
There were also payments for the cancellation of mobile phone contracts for several former MLAs as part of winding-up allowances. Ms Ruane claimed back £373, while there was a £500 payment to the ex-UUP MLA Jo-Anne Dobson.
Meanwhile, the latest figures include a resettlement payment for Oliver McMullan, a Sinn Féin MLA for East Antrim up until last March, who received just over £20,000.
The DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly, who is now an MP, claimed a £4,000 severance payment from the Assembly.
