Ask HN: What happens to commuter transit benefits after separation?

After a large round of layoffs at my company, there were a number of people who had commuter transit benefits (and HSAs) that were lost. Who is profiting from our people being laid off, and how is it actually legal? For anyone unfamiliar with transit benefits or health savings accounts, they are a fringe benefit where an employee pays their own money into them (pre-tax) to have access to these funds for public transit/parking and medical expenses. These are not company funds or government funds, these are funds deposited by the employee. Upon separation with a company, you no longer have access to any funds you deposited into this account. Does anyone know where this money goes?